The Lions Club gathered at Joe Friendly’s Tavern in Empire Monday for dinner and a surprise.
The local community members celebrated Jim Dorsey, 99, with a lifetime achievement award.
“It was a surprise ... Big surprise, how great. I’m so pleased to get it and I’m not used to all this attention,” Dorsey said candidly at the tavern.
Michael Bolton and Steve Wilson announced the award: “It is my honor this evening to bestow upon one of our members a new award to recognize a lifetime of service and achievement, not only to the Lions Club, but also to our community. This award is named after this evening’s recipient and will from this state forward bear his name. The man became a lion the year before the Detroit Lions won their last championship, so hopefully, this bodes well for our team in Detroit. He has steadily volunteered for many years at projects that the club has undertaken,” Bolton continued. “He continues to do so today and is in almost every Lions Club activity and event to help and offer his expertise. On behalf of the Empire Lions Club, I want to present the first James Dorsey Lifetime Award to not only the highest, but the governor and friend, Jim Dorsey.”
Perpetual Plaques will be hung alongside fellow Lions who have passed in this new honor at the Empire Township Hall Many Lions members shared stories of Dorsey and what he meant to the community. Wilson had this as a brainchild and Mike did the leg work.
Dorsey, a former Empire Postmaster for 28 years, delivered a heavy duty mail route for 28 years through rain, snow or shine for his community.
Dorsey is once removed from delivering mail from horseback and is one of a few left from a generation that built Empire through the 20th century.
Dorsey grew up in a small farmhouse near Empire in what is now the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL).
Dorsey went to school at Empire Schoolhouse, which was built on the southwest corner of M-22 and M-72 (Front Street) in 1900. He graduated in the class of 1956.
Nowadays, Dorsey lives on Big Glen Lake where cows and sheep once roamed on his childhood farm. After retirement from the post office, Dorsey continued other passions of golf and traveling with his close friends, and of course helping his Empire community.
Dorsey, who is half Irish and half Norwegian, is always a shining light for people around them.
A complete account of the Dorsey family can be found in John Dorsey’s book, “The Dorsey Family of Glen Lake.”
The book is available at the Cottage Bookshop in Glen Arbor and at the Empire Museum.
