Mr. Roger Kesseler

Class of 1954
Career Pathway: Business, Management, Marketing & Technology

At GHS, Roger Kesseler participated in track, football, basketball, baseball and the junior and senior plays.

After he graduated cum laude from Central Michigan University in 1958, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves and completed eight years with a combination of active duty and reserve service. In 1966 he completed his military service at the rank of captain.

Mr. Kesseler then began working for Dow Chemical Company, where he advanced through several positions, rising in rank to vice president in 1984. He retired from Dow in 1997.  

Gov. John Engler appointed Mr. Kesseler to the CMU Board of Trustees on January 3, 1991. His current term expires December 31, 2006. At CMU, the Roger L. and Phyllis J. Kesseler Finance and Accounting Resource Center was named in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Kesseler. He also serves as a member of CMU's development board of directors, which he chaired from 1989 to 1991.

Mr. Kesseler received an honorary doctorate degree in commercial science from CMU in 1989. In 1990 he was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, an academic honor society for top business school students; in 1992 he was initiated into Sigma Iota Epsilon, an honorary management fraternity; and he was a member of Beta Alpha Psi, an international honor society for accounting, finance and information systems students. In 1996 he received CMU’s first distinguished service award. In 2003, he was honored as the recipient of the Beta Gamma Sigma business achievement award. Also in 2003, a new residence hall at CMU was dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Kesseler “in honor of their long-standing commitment to the university and their ability to lead by example.” He is chairman of the steering committee for CMU's public broadcasting network and also leads the university’s multimillion dollar capital campaign, a five-year initiative that was kicked off last year.  

In November 2013 Roger Kesseler was honored for his dedication to business and higher education by being selected as one of the first two inductees in CMU's College of Business Administration (CBA) Hall of Fame.