A Windsor-Essex business leader is being remembered for his resilience and community dedication after his tragic death on Lake St. Clair. Family and friends have identified Michael Dunn, 74, as the boater who fell overboard near Grosse Pointe, Mich., over the weekend, leading to a multi-day search effort. In a post to social media on Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard shared that the Wayne County Marine Division had recovered the body of the missing boater An obituary posted online remembers Dunn as a business leader and philanthropist who served as a “visionary” in the construction industry. Peter Berry, the Harbour Master and Vice-President of Operations at the Windsor Port Authority, told CTV News he met Dunn about 17 years ago. At the time, Berry had just begun his role as harbour master, and Dunn ran an aggregate terminal on the waterfront. To get off on the right foot, Berry called Dunn’s business, unsure who would pick up. “He hadn’t heard from the port before, except on special occasions, so to have me call, he was first surprised, but secondly, he was very welcoming,” Berry recalled. With a relationship with the Dunn family, Berry said he was shocked to learn “Mike” had passed in the marine tragedy. In his line of work, Berry said he’s seen many drownings, describing them as one of the most “tragic” ways to lose a life. When asked about what he will remember most, Berry said it’s the welcoming guy who always lent a helping hand. “We were doing community cleanups, we were doing things with the Sandwich Teen Action Group and others, and he was a person I would call and ask; he would say ‘absolutely sure, no problem,’” Berry said. Dunn had business endeavours in various construction fields, including his time developing the Kingsbridge Subdivision in Amherstburg. Todd Hewitt, the Manager of Engineering at the Town of Amherstburg, said he worked closely with Dunn for several years to get the development off the ground. “He was resilient,” Hewitt said. “There were certainly some years where the economy was not very good in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and he continued to work hard to try to move that development forward,” Hewitt said in an interview on Thursday evening. Through their working together, Hewitt said he could tell Dunn wanted to provide a development the town could be proud of. Outside of work, Dunn had developed a reputation for being charitable through donations to various local causes. For several years, the business leader sponsored a turkey dinner giveaway in Amherstburg, including vegetables, sides, and a full bag of groceries. CTV News covered the event in 2023, where Dunn said the opportunity to give back warmed his heart. “I do this because I’ve been blessed,” Dunn said at the time. “I’ve been blessed with my construction company and all the work we’ve done in town here, and the building of the Kingsbridge subdivision, and we like to give back, my family and I.” Helping at some of the giveaways, Hewitt said Dunn “understood” what it meant to endure hard times. “He certainly was never hesitant to say that he had some tough days, and so when he was able to give back to the community, he always wanted to because he always said he remembered those days,” Hewitt added. In his obituary, Dunn’s family thanked the U.S. Coast Guard, local police authorities, and organizations that helped with the search efforts. Without him, they wrote the family lost “the leader of our pride,” and the “towering centre of our family.”
