From left, Grosse Pointe Shores Mayor Ted Kedzierski recognizes longtime Shores Planning Commission member Patrick McCarroll for his years of service during a Sept. 16 council meeting.
By: K. Michelle Moran | Grosse Pointe Times | Published October 28, 2025
GROSSE POINTE SHORES — If not for people like Patrick McCarroll, the Grosse Pointes might have been subject to the sounds of aircraft engines in a similar way to the communities around Detroit Metro Airport.
Proposed expansion decades ago of Detroit City Airport, now known as Coleman A. Young International Airport, on the east side to include more commercial flights might have become a reality — along with the roar of jet engines as they ascended and descended over nearby communities — had it not been for the work of people like McCarroll, formerly of Grosse Pointe Shores, who chaired the Detroit City Airport Study Commission. McCarroll and the late Dr. Richard Mertz, also of Grosse Pointe Shores, were among the concerned Grosse Pointers who sounded the alarm and fought airport expansion, which they feared would increase noise and pollution, decrease property values and reduce quality of life in the Pointes and other communities close to the airport.
McCarroll recently stepped down from the Shores Planning Commission — where he served as a member for almost 25 years — because he moved to Saline to be closer to family living in that area. He was recognized for his years of service to his community by Shores Mayor Ted Kedzierski during a Sept. 16 City Council meeting.
“You had great talents to offer,” Kedzierski told McCarroll. “We were really appreciative of your talents.”
A corporate attorney who worked for General Motors before he retired in 2017, McCarroll brought his legal expertise to the Planning Commission and other entities. He was also elected to serve on the Grosse Pointe Shores Charter Commission in 2008, which rewrote the Shores’ charter as the community transitioned from a village to a city.
“We worked really hard to keep ‘The Village’ (in the city’s name),” McCarroll said of the charter, which was approved by Shores voters in 2009.
The Shores’ formal name is The Village of Grosse Pointe Shores, a Michigan City; many residents wanted to retain “village” in the name, despite the Shores becoming a city.
“I had a great time serving,” McCarroll told the council. “You get more out of it than (you put in). … It was a privilege.”
Call Staff Writer K. Michelle Moran at (586) 498-1047.