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From left: Madeleine, Maggie and Hannah Engler at Comerica Park in July 2014. (Facebook photos)
This is about family and memories, not politics.
It's a chance to recall how Michigan's First Family went from two members to five on a fall Sunday morning two decades ago, and to catch up with triplets who turn 21 next month.
Today they're among those wishing happy 67th birthday to John Engler, their dad.
A 2010 family portrait while the teens were in high school.
The former three-term governor (1991-2003) lives in McLean, Va., with his wife Michelle, 57. He's in his fifth year as president of the Business Roundtable, a Washington association of corporate chief executive officers. Engler earlier served for six years as president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.
But enough about the guy near retirement age. Monday's birthday gives us a reason to catch up with the trio we recall as election week babies in an era before Google, 10 years before Facebook and a dozen years before Twitter.
The Engler triplets are juniors at leading universities in three states:
- Maggie is at Stanford.
- Hannah is at the University of Michigan.
- Madeleine attends William & Mary, about 150 miles south of her parents, who've been married 25 years.
Their birth Nov. 13, 1994 was "the most special thing anyone could go through," Engler told reporters after being in the delivery room at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
Five days earlier, he won a second term, beating Democrat Howard Wolpe by 61-38 percent -- which must have felt special in an entirely different way.
Now, as the politician-turned-business leader prepares to wind down his high-profile careers, his look-alike daughters get ready to launch theirs in two years.
A family aglow. From left: Madeleine, Maggie and Hannah.
Madeleine, a history major and Gamma Phi Beta sorority member, served for two months last spring as an intern in the U.S. House Speaker's Office while John Boehner held that leadership post. As part of her duties, Engler "composed memos on congressional hearings for staffers and policy directors," she says on LinkedIn. At college, academic achievements qualified her for the elite James Monroe Scholar Program.
Hannah, concentrating on English literature and general studies in Ann Arbor, is active in a group called University Students Against Rape and contributes web content and social media posts for the national Feminist Majority Foundation. She writes frequently for various publications on an off campus, including a student women's health monthly called What the F Magazine. (The letter stands for fresh, funny, fearless, feminist and that other word.)
"I’m done fighting for my right to color my hair. I want to get over myself and fight alongside the [sexual assault] victims – the survivors – as they do whatever they can to have their voices heard. They deserve to have their demands met. They have the right to demand, even if it drives you 'nutty,' Dr. [Mark] Schlissel," she wrote in April, referring to UM's new president.
College-bound sisters in June 2013, from left: Madeleine, Hanna and Maggie.
In California, Maggie (who doesn't use Margaret) pursues a more technical focus than her sisters. She's studying electrical engineering, with a concentration in signal processing and a minor in mathematical and computational Science. She's also a writing tutor and member of the Girls Teaching Girls to Code group that trains high school girls to write programs and develop mobile apps.
In a role that echoes her UM sister's activism, she's part of the Stanford University Women's Coalition as an event planner and coordinator. "She loves volleyball, water-skiing, country music and anything chocolate," says a blurb at the coalition's site.
It seems likely we'll read and hear about this generation of Englers again in coming years.
And for now: Happy birthday, governor.
A 1994 United Press International wire service dispatch. How cool is the Internet's wayback machine, right?
