On September 26, two Brandon graduates will be inducted into the Ed and Diane Donaldson Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame.
In 2015, the Brandon School District introduced the wall of fame, named after Ed and Diane Donaldson, who were both educators in the district for many years. The project honors alumni for their exemplary service to their community, country, field of study, or field of work.
Over the years, I have gotten to see 15 different people be inducted into the wall of fame. These alumni were once just students in Brandon Schools, and the idea behind the wall of fame is to honor the alumni and show the current students what they can achieve as a Brandon graduate.
This year, I get the honor of introducing one of the honorees, since I was one of the people who nominated him and everyone universally decided that I’m good at public speaking. I’m actually just good at writing a speech and reading said speech, which makes sense given my love of writing and reading.
In all seriousness, I’m happy to announce that one of the honorees is Bob McArthur, a 1964 graduate, who is being honored for distinguished achievement in providing significant decades of leadership in the Ortonville-Brandon community.
In the time I’ve known Bob McArthur, I’ve known him as the Brandon Groveland Youth Assistance chairman and the current Ortonville planning commission chairman. Prior to that, he spent 33 years on the Brandon Fire Department, and 12 of those years as fire chief. He also spent time on the Ortonville DDA, is a current member of the Ortonville Masons, and spent years working with the Brandon band as a parent volunteer.
“It’s an honor being recognized at the same level as the majority of those that are on the wall for various reasons,” said McArthur. “I know almost every one of them. They’ve been friends through the years. It’s rewarding to know you’re recognized the same as them.”
Seeing as I was one of his nominators, I can say with certainty that McArthur deserves to be honored. The work he does with BGYA and all the work he has done in the community in years past has made a huge impact on the youth of the community. From winter coats to car seats, McArthur has made sure the families have what they need.
“It is an honor to be recognized for the work I do that I enjoy,” he said.
Every year there is more than one honoree. I’ve found every year when I do this story that the honorees have a fascinating story to tell about their work, and Rodney Mersino is no different. A 1991 graduate, he is being honored for distinguished achievement in business through the company Mersino Water Solutions.
“It’s a company that my parents founded in 1988,” he said. “I’m the oldest of seven kids, so I was a helping hand in the early days while I was going through high school. I went to Michigan State and got a degree in finance, and when I graduated , I was asked to come back and join the family business full-time in 1995. At that time, we were still located in Ortonville in my parent’s house.”
Mersino Water Solutions has grown since then to encompass 21 locations across the US. They build portable, diesel pumps in their manufacturing plant in Davison and they sell them to users around the world, as well as use them for their own fleet. They have also grown from 20 employees to 565 under Mersino’s direction.
“Really, they’re used in any number of applications,” he said of the water pumps. “One of the big ones, for instance, there was a sink hole in Sterling Heights in 2016 on Christmas Eve. We worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I lived on the job site for two weeks providing emergency service for the site. We provided a temporary pumping system for the entire east side sewage service system, and we maintained sewer service for the 250,000 homes connected upstream of the sewage service system. If we had not started when we did, it would have back up into those homes on Christmas Day.”
Other uses include pumps to do big civil construction projects, deep wells to pump ground water, water on mining cites, water pumping near oil patches, and much more. They also provide pumps for flood protection for hurricane relief and other natural disaster relief. There are currently still pumps in Florida from the aftermath of Hurricane Ian two years ago to maintain the sewer systems in Naples.
“I’m very proud to be recognized as an alum of Brandon High School,” he said. “I’m proud of what we’ve done as a family, and I am happy to have had the opportunity to go to Brandon because I had some wonderful teachers there. I was prepared for life, prepared for college from going to Brandon. The foundation came from there, from the many wonderful teachers I had at Brandon.”
Both Mersino and McArthur will be inducted into the Ed and Diane Donaldson Distinguished alumni Wall of Fame at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 26 at Brandon High School, 1025 S. Ortonville Road.