Alpena’s most well-known philanthropist, Jesse Besser, would have been 134 years old today.

No one has given more of a legacy to Northeast Michigan over the years than he and his wife. Their love of Alpena, and its people, resulted in wonderful gifts to the community while they were living, and their establishment of a foundation and wise management of that foundation, has ensured their legacy and generosity would continue making a difference in the region today.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that all of us have heard: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Besser was the epitome of the man who taught others to fish through his philanthropic outreach.

In 1964, for Besser’s 82nd birthday, a group of community leaders wanted to do something very special for the man who had done so very much for them and Alpena. As the final plans were coming together for the construction of a museum that Besser was going to build for the community, the group decided that a planetarium for that museum would be the perfect gift.

In a public campaign that enlisted the help of the entire community – from Girl Scouts to church outreach groups, young elementary students to retired senior citizens, prominent names of the community to whole neighborhoods of ordinary Joes and Janes – Alpena rallied together and raised a significant amount of the $40,000 that was needed to make the planetarium become a reality.

Two years later construction on it and the museum was complete, and the doors were opened to the public. In the end nearly 1,400 individuals, groups and organizations joined together in a common cause to purchase a planetarium and be part of building a museum for not only them but their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Whether it was a contribution of a dollar or a thousand dollars, each person was participating in their own form of legacy building.

Today, in an advertisement being run on page 8B of The News, you can read all 1,380 names from that 1964 campaign. I encourage you to do so, for you might see the name of a family member, a neighbor, or a group or organization that you are affiliated with. Everyone on that list played a role in purchasing a planetarium that has wowed and educated residents for 50 years.

I know as I read the names I saw many familiar ones that sparked memories of people I hadn’t thought of for years. “Wow, so Larry helped contribute to that planetarium … I had no idea.”

And, those names reminded me of the legacy role I play for the community as well. My wife and I never have had a problem in being our own philanthropists for Northeast Michigan, yet this is another opportunity we have to share our blessings and thus, hopefully create blessings for others. I remember the excitement our oldest granddaughter Isabelle had at the museum last summer, and a contribution today ensures that she, and her children, might be able to enjoy similar fantastic times years down the road.

In a stroke of incredible irony, the stars must be lining up over the Besser Museum of Northeast Michigan today. The $40,000 of 1964 dollars would, in today’s market, translate to about $300,000, or the amount of funds needed today to upgrade and purchase a new digital sky planetarium. What are the chances of that?

And it all began as a birthday gift for Jesse Besser.

Happy Birthday Jesse all over again! It was so much fun surprising you back in 1964 with the gift of the planetarium, let’s do it again as part of the museum’s 50th anniversary fundraising efforts.

And who knows, maybe you might become the next Jesse Besser with a gift that was started today.

Bill Speer can be reached via email at bspeer@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 354-3111 ext. 331. Follow Bill on Twitter @billspeer13. Read his blog, More BS?(Bill Speer) at www.thealpenanews.com.