John Fetzer enjoyed a successful career in business as owner of the Detroit Tigers and Kalamazoo radio station WKZO. But Western Michigan University Professor Brian Wilson says Fetzer also engaged in a spiritual search “which lasted a lifetime.”
Wilson is the author of John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age. The Professor of American Religious History spoke with Zinta Aistars. A segment of the interview originally aired in Art Beat in September.
Wilson says even Fetzer’s closest associates didn’t know about his deep interest in spirituality. Wilson says he was able to get access to archives at the Fetzer Institute to research his book. He says for Fetzer there was always a sense of community and service, not just your own inner journey.
Although Fetzer kept his spiritual exploration separate from his business, there were times the two worlds met. Wilson says that includes Fetzer’s conversation with Mark “the Bird Fidrych. The young pitcher became self-conscious when his antics on the mound were mocked. Wilson says Fetzer’s main message was that talking to the baseball and grooming the mound was how Fidrych imposed his mind over his pitching, and contributed to his success.
John Fetzer died in 1991 just shy of his 90th birthday. Wilson says Fetzer did experience health problems in his later years, but his mind kept searching. “He maintained that curiosity right up to the day he died.”