Catherine “Cathy” Fleming, ’76, grew up in Royal Oak Township, Michigan, in the 1950s and ’60s, and found comfort and inspiration in her school teachers and librarians.
In junior high, her teachers organized a field trip to Ann Arbor, which was her first exposure to the University of Michigan campus.
“I could sense this hunger for knowledge, and I thought to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be in a place like this someday?’ It was so important for us kids to know that places like U-M exist,” she says.
Fleming went on to earn multiple degrees and has worked in the law and library system—and at the intersection of both. She also has made it a point to offer the same sense of support to younger generations that she once received.
As an homage to the opportunities she has had throughout her education and during her career—a career she says Michigan Law made possible—Fleming has long been a committed and loyal donor to her alma mater.
Service through law and libraries
In the early 1970s, Fleming earned her undergraduate degree from Wayne State University and began working in Detroit. She took assignments from a temp agency during the day and worked at a local public library in the evening until she began her legal studies at Michigan Law.
“I thrived in Ann Arbor,” says Fleming. “I found work playing the organ and keyboard for local churches, waitressing in Detroit, and working in the University of Michigan medical library; and I volunteered to usher for the University Musical Society.”
She says she was particularly influenced by the teaching and mentorship of Professors Beverly Pooley, Andrew Watson, and Whitmore Gray, ’57.
After graduating, Fleming applied for the Volunteers in Service to America program, which allowed her to postpone loan repayment for one year and placed her with Lansing Legal Aid. There, she helped establish a senior citizens’ unit through fundraising and contract negotiations with community organizations; after a year in Lansing, she returned to Detroit to work on the Senior Citizens Legal Aid project, which was part of the Legal Aid and Defender Association of Detroit.
Fleming was eventually recruited by Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley as an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, and later with the Michigan Employment Security Division. She also returned to Wayne State University to earn a graduate degree in library sciences. In 1991, Fleming graduated and left the attorney general’s office to become a branch manager at the North Flint (Michigan) Public Library.
During her two years in Flint, “We moved the library’s location from a shopping center to a public school that was being turned into a community center. Once the relocation was complete, we established an after-school program for kids.”
While at the Flint Library, she learned of an internship in Washington, DC, in the Copyright Division of the Library of Congress. After a competitive application process, she was accepted for the two-year position.
“For an information nerd, that job is best described as feeling like Christmas every day,” she says. “It was perfect for me—a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Catherine “Cathy” Fleming, ’76Having gone to the Law School is my superpower. I’ve been really, really lucky for what the school has done for my life; it opened doors that wouldn't have opened for me otherwise.
Paying it forward
Fleming eventually returned to Detroit to be closer to family and found work at Wayne State University Law Library and other public libraries until retirement. During that time, she joined the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Michigan Bar Association and remained active in the law as a volunteer mediator for community agencies. She also is an active, loyal donor to the Law School Fund, Michigan Law’s primary source of discretionary funding.
“Having gone to the Law School is my superpower,” says Fleming. “I’ve been really, really lucky for what the school has done for my life; it opened doors that wouldn't have opened for me otherwise. To be able to sit in a bank and discuss giving back—through language that had never been discussed in my family before—I have such glee when I put a check in the mailbox.”
