­By Tom Kirvan
Legal News

It was billed as an evening to celebrate Butzel Long’s storied 170th anniversary, a time to commemorate the prominent role the law firm has played in the development of the Detroit auto, manufacturing, commerce, and technology sectors.

And yet, former Butzel Chairman Dick Rassel had a hunch that the grand celebration might include something more.

“I had a suspicion that something else was brewing,” said Rassel, now in his 55th year with the firm headquartered in Detroit and with seven other offices around the state.

His gut feeling was confirmed soon after the September 11 event began when it was announced that the firm had created the Richard Rassel Butzel Core Values Scholarship, an annual $15,000 award to be presented to a deserving law school student.

“Nothing could have pleased me more,” Rassel said of the honor that dovetails neatly with his longtime role in furthering Detroit educational programs and causes. “It’s a very meaningful way to highlight the importance of education and to generously help students with the cost of their schooling.”

A 1960 product of University of Detroit High School, Rassel excelled academically at the University of Notre Dame, where he benefitted from a study abroad program in Rome that proved to be an enriching and “eye-opening cultural and educational experience,” he said.

But Rassel also indulged his thirst for learning at Notre Dame by joining a comedy club that produced a weekly show that specialized in “intellectual comedy that lived on the edge.” The club, not surprisingly, was eventually shut down when it ran afoul of the Dean of Discipline at the internationally renowned Catholic university in South Bend, Ind.

After obtaining a degree in general studies from Notre Dame in 1964, Rassel took his talents to the University of Michigan Law School, perennially ranked as one of the top legal learning institutions in the nation. He enrolled that summer, completing the normal three-year program in two years and three months, graduating with the Class of 1966.

Rassel clerked briefly with Judge Thomas Giles Kavanagh of the Michigan Court of Appeals before reporting for Officer Training in the U.S. Navy, earning his commission as an ensign in early 1967. He served as an officer on the USS Wasp until November 1969.

With his prized U-M Law School degree in hand, Rassel joined Butzel Long Gust Klein and VanZile in late November 1969, beginning a distinguished career in which he has earned a reputation for excellence in representing clients in the newspaper, automotive, health care, and aerospace industries. A member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Toledo native was inducted into Michigan Lawyers Weekly Hall of Fame in 2020, and has served as a mentor and role model to countless Butzel attorneys over the course of his career.

“We are so grateful to Dick for his selfless leadership for all these years and his personal interest in each and every person who makes up the Butzel machine,” Butzel President and CEO Paul Mersino said on behalf of the firm that was founded in 1854.

Rassel also has made his mark in the community service sector, earning widespread acclaim for his leadership efforts with Detroit Public Television, the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation, the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Holy Cross Foundation, the Birmingham Community House, and the University of Detroit School of Law.

Notably, he served on the University of Michigan Law School Dean’s Advisory Board and later on the Dean’s Counsel for a number of years. In addition, he is the immediate past co-chair of Detroit Drives Degrees, a program designed to improve the talent pipeline in the metropolitan region.

Rich Homberg, president and CEO of Detroit PBS, has been a longtime admirer of Rassel, a past chairman of the organization formerly known as Detroit Public Television and a recipient of its Community Leadership Award in 2011.

“Dick, throughout his many years of association with public television in Detroit, has demonstrated the kind of visionary leadership that has consistently inspired others to take positive action,” said Homberg, the former general manager of WWJ Newsradio 950 in Detroit. “He truly makes things happen when he gets involved with a project or a good cause.”

Rassel, known for his keen wit and self-effacing nature, was one of two children. His older sister, Nancy, may have influenced her brother’s sense of humor by serving as an executive assistant for Soupy Sales, the popular comedian and radio-television personality who developed pie-throwing into an art form. His parents, Madonna and Dick, met in Toledo and began raising their family there before moving to Detroit where his father took a job as national sales manager for E.W. Bliss Co., a manufacturer of machine tools.

As a young lawyer at Butzel, Rassel was the father of two children, ages 3 and 5, with a third on the way when his wife, Elizabeth, was stricken with leukemia, a disease that cost her life and that of her unborn child.

“Obviously, it was a very difficult time for all of us, but my focus had to be centered on the welfare of our children, who suddenly were without their mother, who was just 33 at the time of her death,” Rassel indicated. “The kids were my saving grace. I was a single parent for seven years before getting remarried.”

Rassel and his wife, Dawn, recently celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary, enjoying a special dinner at the Book Tower in Detroit. The couple shares a love for their four children – Rick, Lissie, Lauren, and Brian – and eight grandchildren.

They also have a passion for skiing, tennis, vacations Up North, and all things Detroit.

“We’ve been blessed to be part of Detroit’s turnaround,” declared Rassel, who said that his wife’s volunteer work in the community “has made me look like a slouch” at times. “It’s great to see all the good that is happening in Detroit.”