First Lieutenant John Grimshaw

ALPENA — After serving more than 30 years with the Michigan State Police, and nine years as the commander of the MSP Alpena Post, First Lieutenant John Grimshaw retired.

Over his career, he has worked with his staff to help keep Northeast Michigan safe. He earned a Bravery Award and four Professional Excellence Awards for investigations during his career.

Grimshaw said even though he is not originally from Alpena, he formed his family and is proud to be a part of the community.

“I raised my kids here, made a career here, and Alpena is my home,” Grimshaw said. “I think I have had a great relationship with all of our partners, not only police but all of the local officials and the members of the community.”

Grimshaw said he intends to spend more time with his wife, Genny, and his two daughters, Elliyana and Adriana, now that he has more time on his hands. He said there are also several projects that he has had on the back burner for some time, that he wants to see through.

“I’m going to do whatever I want,” Grimshaw said with a chuckle. “I have a lot of projects I haven’t been able to do, so I’ll accomplish those. My kids are still young and playing sports so I can spend more time with them, and really my wife and I will just enjoy the fruits of our labor.”

Grimshaw said over the years, he has worked with many dedicated police officials. He said many of them were within the MSP, but were also many from other police agencies. Grimshaw said he will always respect the hard work and dedication all local police have.

“We have a strong relationship with one another because we all have the same job,” he said. “That is to make the community safe for everyone in Northeast Michigan.”

Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith said he has had the privilege of working with Grimshaw pretty much since he became a police officer. He said Grimshaw earned his retirement and hopes he makes the best of his spare time.

“It has truly been an honor to work with Lt. Grimshaw for most of my career,” Smith said. “I wish him the best of luck in this next chapter of his life. He will certainly be missed.”

Grimshaw is a native of Novi and earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Wayne State University. He began his career with the MSP on Sept. 11, 1994, as a member of the 110th Trooper Recruit School.

His first post assignment was at MSP’s Bad Axe Post as a trooper and later selected to the newly formed MSP Gaming Section to complete background investigations on the casinos that were built in Detroit.

Later, Grimshaw put his uniform back on when he joined the Richmond MSP Post and then moved on to the FBI Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force in Detroit.

In 2002, he came to the Alpena Post for the first time as a trooper assigned to the Lincoln Resident Trooper Detachment and was promoted to sergeant at the MSP Training Division in 2010. He then worked at the Flint and Brighton Posts as a sergeant before being promoted to Post Commander at the Alpena Post in 2015.

During his career, he has been a Firearms and Defensive Tactics Instructor Trainer, as well as a Precision Driving Instructor at the training academy.

Grimshaw said the state will decide who the new full-time commander will be and that announcement could come in early December, but there is no set-in-stone timeline for when his replacement will be named. Until then, Grimshaw said, Sergeant Dan Werner will be the acting commander at the Alpena Post.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on X @ss_alpenanews.com.