Longtime Ford Employee Finds Healing and Hope in Michigan Central Station’s Transformation

Thirty-three years after joining Ford, Logistics Specialist Jon DuBois’ career has lasted nearly as long as Michigan Central Station, a building he long treasured, was closed. 

A fifth-generation Ford employee, DuBois, along with his great-grandfather, whose own Ford tenure dated back to the Henry Ford era, were among the final passengers when the latter took the then teen on a day trip to Chicago for a slice of pizza in the fall of 1987. The station would close its doors a couple of months later in January 1988, following a decades-long decline in ridership.

Agony from afar

DuBois’ great-grandfather, who had become his best friend, mentor, and frequent fishing partner, died shortly thereafter. While DuBois, who recalled being in awe of the building’s size and its majesty, would always have cherished memories, the fate of the former train station was gut-wrenching for him to see. 

For more than three decades, DuBois, now 52, would pass by and wonder what the future held for the hulking structure – as did many Metro Detroiters – which represented what once was for the city of Detroit. Like many, DuBois was shocked to learn of Ford’s reclamation project, spearheaded by Executive Chair Bill Ford, in 2018. DuBois was flabbergasted upon reentering the station in early-June and was still raving about the building days later when he offered congratulations on the project during a Global Town Hall held at The Station.

A glimpse of the future

DuBois, a Dearborn native who now lives in Westland, was among more than 200 Ford team members who took an advance tour of the immaculately restored building, ahead of its public opening. DuBois also attended the star-studded outdoor concert featuring Eminem, Diana Ross, Jack White, and many, many others who announced the building’s grand reopening to the world. 

“Getting to be down there for both for the concert and the tour, the inside of it took me right back to my childhood, but it was even better because the building looks newer than it did in 1988,” said DuBois, whose wife of 24 years passed away unexpectedly in April. 

DuBois was eager to share the station’s history with his family, including his daughter who works at Flat Rock Assembly Plant, and encouraged them to take advantage of the public tours following the opening concert. 

“It’s just the perfect ending to the perfect story for me,” he said. “From what it was in 1988 to what it is today … I still can’t believe it’s real.”