Mark Wollenweber has been a role model, leader, mentor, and friend to emerging and established professionals in Michigan and throughout the United States during a career spanning 50-plus years. In the early 1970s, while completing a master’s degree at the University of Detroit, he began work on the staff of the Michigan Municipal League before moving on to progressively responsible positions in local government until he retired in 2019 as city manager in Grosse Pointe Shores.

In his city manager positions, Wollenweber was cited for “thinking outside the box.” He spearheaded the Intergovernmental Cable Communication Authority that provided cable service to nine communities in Oakland County, Michigan. It was one of the largest cable consortia in the country at the time and continues today. In St. Clair Shores, he was responsible for the development of Lac Sainte Claire Park, which included a marina development and a refurbished municipal pool. It was funded by the largest recreational bond issued at the time. And he was responsible for what became the Nautical Mile, a commercial TIF district and merchants association along Lake Saint Clair—the first successful development in that area after two failures.

Wollenweber has consistently encouraged and mentored young professionals and helped them launch rewarding careers in local government. He supported and promoted women in leadership positions as early as the 1980s, when women were not generally encouraged to pursue local government careers. He was a frequent guest lecturer in MPA programs and served on the Wayne State University MPA program review committee for many years. He hired and supervised more than a dozen interns from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Michigan State University, Oakland University, Grand Valley State University, and Wayne State University.

A leader in supporting managers in transition, Wollenweber served on ICMA’s Task Force on Members in Transition and led an initiative by Michigan Municipal Executives (MME), the state association of managers, to provide counseling free of charge to managers who were in trouble and/or faced termination. Whenever possible, he hired managers in transition for city projects.

Contributions to ICMA have included a term as midwest regional vice president; membership on conference planning and evaluation committees; the Awards Evaluation Committee; the Data and Information Services Committee, which he also chaired; and the Telecommunications Committee. He continues as a Senior Advisor, a leadership development mentor, and a legacy leader.

MME has tapped Wollenweber’s wisdom and experience as well. He continues as a member of its Experience Committee and the MIT Committee. In the past he served as president, a member of the board of directors, chair of the ethics commit-tee, and a participant in numerous other committees. One of his major accomplishments was leading a succession of MME presidents and past presidents in a successful effort to amend the Michigan Home Rule Cities Act to provide that manager con-tracts could include severance provisions, thus undoing a court decision that had removed severance protections from managers’ employment agreements.

Wollenweber’s service has been recognized with the John M. Patriarche Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor conferred by MME; the Michigan Municipal League Special Award of Merit; and a scholarship to attend the Harvard University JFK School of Government Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government, awarded by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and the Taubman Company. In 1982, the Detroit Metro Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration named him “City Manager of the Year.”

Wollenweber’s service did not end with his retirement. He continues to lend a hand to cities and local government professionals as a consultant and mentor. Colleagues praise him for his strong moral compass, his passion for local government and professional management, and his humble, servant-leadership approach, all of which have earned him ICMA’s Distinguished Service Award.