William C. Kulsea
Inducted 1988
Lansing bureau chief, Booth Newspapers, Inc.
William C. Kulsea, known as the dean of the State Capitol press corps, was Lansing bureau chief of Booth Newspapers, Inc. from 1957 until his retirement in 1976. Born in Poland in 1911, Kulsea came to America as an infant and later became a U.S. citizen. He edited a Polish-language newspaper for nine months in his adopted hometown of Jackson, where he attended Jackson Community College. Kulsea graduated from Michigan State University in 1935. The following year he joined the staff of the Jackson Citizen Patriot and started what would become a 40-year career with the Booth newspaper group. During his years in Lansing, Kulsea became as much a part of the political scene as the nine governors he covered. Journalists and political experts alike applauded his direction of bureau coverage for the 1961-62 Michigan Constitutional Convention in which a new state Constitution was drafted. Over the years, Kulsea has accumulated many awards for his writing and direction. Among these was the Detroit Press Club Foundation award for Distinguished Reporting for a 1973 series on lobbyists’ political contributions to lawmakers and a certificate of merit from the American Bar Association in 1972 for distinguished reporting of judicial matters.