Michigan National Guard
As a youth, with Potter’s Park as his backyard and growing up in the sounds and shadows of MSU, Colonel David Demps considers himself a Lansing product. Colonel Demps is one of a family of fifteen, from a family of twelve. His father, a steel-forging minister, was the son of a Florida farmer. His maternal grandmother, a single parent, cleaned homes, as she imparted an appreciation of the arts to his mother, the eldest in a family of three. Well situated within the baby boom generation Colonel Demps came of age during the late 1960s and 70s. It is that era’s progressively inclusive spirit that shaped his character and fueled his determination.
As a Oakland University graduate, after a Saturday morning’s jog of Moore’s River Drive, Colonel Demps sat on top of a picnic table in Francis Park and contemplated his future. Unable to consider the possibilities, given an apparently blank slate, he shortened his time horizon to increments of one, five, and ten years. Based on the result of that self-examination, Colonel Demps married his girlfriend and enlisted in the regular army as a private.
Colonel Demps credits the officers and NCOs of the 124th Military Intelligence Battalion for providing an environment in which he could thrive. As a result of their support he was awarded a direct commission as a finance officer upon completion of his Masters of Arts (MA) from Central Michigan University. Upon completion of his term of enlistment and after serving as an Army Reserve officer with the field artillery he joined the Michigan Guard.
Colonel Demps continued his educational development at Michigan State University where he was awarded a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing. It was during that period and as a result of the lessons learned from Union Carbide’s environmental incident in Bhopal India that Colonel Demps gained a greater appreciation for the role of risk management in developing business models and decided to earn his law degree. For the next four years Colonel Demps worked as a brand analyst in the automotive industry, served as a member of the Michigan Guard, raised his young family and pursued his legal education at the University of Detroit.
Upon receiving his Jurist Doctorate (JD) and passing the Michigan Bar, Colonel Demps decided to take his legal education one step further and earned his Masters of Law (LLM) in Corporate Law at Wayne State University while serving as a Battalion Commander and practicing law. Colonel Demps most recently completed his formal military education when he was awarded a Master’s in Security Strategy (MSS) from the United States Army War College while serving as the Michigan Guard’s Bilateral Affairs Officer to Latvia.
Colonel Demps is married to his friend since ninth grade, the former Deborah Williams also from Lansing Michigan, whose faith and continuous support has provided the catalyst for their success. Colonel Demps unabashedly subscribes to Robert Browning’s philosophy, that it is not merely what a person does that exalts them but what they would do. Therefore a person’s reach should exceed their grasp; or what is heaven for.
