Each year, University of Detroit Mercy honors seven alumni — one from each of the colleges and schools at the University — with a Spirit of Detroit Mercy award.
These honorees are alumni who have marked themselves with distinction in their career and in their personal life. They will be honored at a special ceremony on April 27 on the McNichols Campus. Tickets for the event can be purchased here.
Today, we introduce Thomas E. Page ’71, ’76, the honoree from the College of Liberal Arts & Education. We’ve already written about the honorees from the College of Business Administration, the College of Engineering & Science and the College of Health Professions. come back over the next week to read about others.
Page began his law enforcement career with the Detroit Police Department but it was while he was with the Los Angeles Police Department that he helped create the curriculum and standards now used by officers in all 50 states and many other countries to enable them to detect and apprehend alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers. He was the first chair of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Drug Recognition Expert Section, and chaired the first International Alcohol, Drugs and Driving Training Conference. He has been recognized as an expert by courts in 21 states, has presented internationally on law enforcement issues and continues to serve the law enforcement community as a consultant and expert witness.
After retiring from the LAPD, Page returned to his hometown of Detroit, to promote urban bicycling and the resurgence of the city. He received the Sierra Club’s Green Cruiser of the Year Award in 2017, given to the person who has done the most to promote bicycling in southeast Michigan. Page has been the recipient of numerous commendations during his law enforcement career and his community service earned him the City of Detroit’s Distinguished Achievement Award and the Detroit City Council’s Spirit of Detroit Award.
“In ways I couldn’t have anticipated, my liberal arts education at the University of Detroit/Detroit Mercy provided me with the knowledge, the skills, and the passion to develop a law enforcement program than actually saves lives. My professors inculcated in me the understanding that ethics, that character, that morality do count, and are the keys for living a worthwhile life.”
We wrote about Page earlier on this blog. Click here to read more about him and his long history of good works.
