Former Michigan Rep. Vern Ehlers, a physicist, dies at 83
LANSING, Mich. — Vern Ehlers, a research physicist and moderate Republican who represented a western Michigan congressional district for 17 years and advocated for Great Lakes cleanup funding, has died. He was 83.
Ehlers died late Tuesday at a Grand Rapids nursing facility, Melissa Morrison, funeral director at Zaagman Memorial Chapel, said Wednesday.
Ehlers decided in 2010 against seeking re-election to the 3rd District, which currently includes much of the Grand Rapids region and stretches beyond Battle Creek. He won the seat in a 1993 special election after serving 11 years in the Legislature and eight years on the Kent County Board of Commissioners.
In Congress, he successfully advocated for a law that authorized spending $270 million over five years to clean up sediments in the Great Lakes and oversaw the United States’ first major statement on science policy in more than 50 years. He also was involved in improving math and science education and creating the congressional website.