Several months ago, in a letter to the editor defending Northern Michigan University’s decision to remove Luther West’s name from the physical structure now known only as The Science Building, I issued...

The NMU Board of Trustees, and now the NMU Foundation, have sullied the memory of Luther S. West, professor emeritus of biology at NMU from 1938 to 1965. Ignoring decades of dedication to academic research,...

This is sent with profound sadness and concern over NMU’s hasty decision to erase all traces  of Dr. Luther West from it’s campus. As a relative by marriage, I testify to the character of the man I knew for 36 years.

The Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees made the right decision when it voted last month to remove Dr. Luther West’s name from the edifice formerly known as West Science—now denominated simply as the Science Building. This action communicates to the general public, and to the NMU community in particular, that the university considers the value of an inclusive, pluralistic society to be a fundamental and paramount one.

I am writing this letter because I believe that I am one of few people alive who knew West well. I grew up with his youngest son and spent as much time at the West house as my own.

Doctor Luther West—a former Northern Michigan University biology professor who openly supported the promotion of “conservative eugenic legislation and eugenic administration” in the 1920s—is a wholly “blameless” person. At least, that’s what Philip Niswonger seems to argue in his recent letter to the editor. But his letter to the editor is entirely unconvincing, as it solely consists of a series of nonsensical non sequiturs.

Interim President Kerri Schuiling recently sent out a statement about potentially taking the name of Luther West off of the West Science Building. I believe this to be a shameful act by the university and I hope the committee will reject the name change.

After a recent discovery on Luther S. West's past with eugenics, NMU has considered changing West Science to be dedicated to someone that fits NMU's core values.