Memory of Corban Ferris lives brightly

By Mallory Stiles
Editor in Chief

Former LCC Student Corban Tyler Ferris was born on April 26, 2001. He attended LCC as an engineering major directly after finishing high school in 2019, but his life tragically ended on July 4 of the following year.

Corban influenced everyone who was lucky enough to meet him, and the impressions he left on people have proved permanent.

His college career was just beginning, but his high school band teacher, Michael Emerson, said he always saw a great deal of potential in Corban.

“Corban was a very caring and smart young man,” Emerson said. “It's always hard to speculate what could have been, but due to his quiet and professional demeanor, combined with his winning smile and willingness to work, he was definitely poised for a lot of success in life. He was taken from us far too soon.”

Emerson added that Holt High School continues to work hard to keep Corban’s memory alive.

“The Corban Ferris Memorial Award is given each year to the most improved marching band member,” he said, “and there is a perpetual plaque with a photo of Corban, preserving his memory and legacy.”

Corban’s best friend, Brian Griffin, also jumped at the chance to comment, and wanted it on the record that he and Corban were like brothers. He shared that it’s the little things about their friendship that he has the most trouble living without.

“It hits me the most when I'm living daily life,” Griffin said. “I think of him because I want to show him something, listen to a new song from one of our favorite artists together, or have a laugh about something I really couldn't with anyone else.”

The two became friends at a high school lunch table, but Griffin said there are certain things about Corban that he will never forget.

“I will always remember how Corban lived simply,” Griffin said. “How he knew that what was valuable in life was loving God and loving others, and that true joy would come from that alone.”

Corban Ferris is shown with his sister Annabelle at his high school graduation. Courtesy photo


In addition to being a great student and deeply dedicated friend, Corban was also a doting big brother to his baby sister, Annabelle Ferris.

Annabelle said even though she and Corban were only a few years a part, he was both protective and inclusive, as rare as of a combination as that may be.

“He would give the shirt off his back for anyone,” Annabelle said. “He was always there for me, and helped me through some of the hardest times during my childhood; learning long-division, having my first heartbreak, growing in my faith, learning how to be a good friend, learning how to get out of my comfort zone and always enjoying the little things in life.”

She added she was forever changed after losing Corban, so much so that she decided to spend every day helping others with their own losses.

“His impact on my life and the weight of losing him inspired me to pursue funeral directing,” Annabelle said. “So now I get to live everyday doing something very important and helping people.”

There is no shortage of people who will forever grieve Corban’s death, but his mother, Michelle Ruby Ferris, has been completely engulfed in heartbreak since the day she lost her only child.  

She said that she, a few family members and a few friends were all up at her brother’s cottage just off of Lake Michigan. It was the morning of July 4, 2020, and they had all made their way to the water together. Corban went too far out alone and began to struggle on his way back to the shore.

“We didn’t realize he was struggling at first, then we asked if he was OK and he shook his head no,” she said, nearly in tears. “Then we started screaming for my brother because there was none of us that were standing there that could get to him.

“He got to Corban but Corban was already struggling too much at that point, he was pulling my brother down with him … he couldn’t just hold on to him … I saw Corban come up and down three times and then I never saw him come up again.”

The Coast Guard found Corban within the hour. He was taken to a Traverse City hospital and medical professionals tried hard to resuscitate him, but the miracle Michelle was so desperately hoping for never came.

“The first month, the first year … was just about going through the motions,” Michelle said. “It took a lot of energy just to shower and brush my teeth and get dressed. In the early days, I couldn’t hardly eat.”

Michelle, now 50, still remembers having Corban at 27. She was divorced within Corban’s first year and had him with her most of the time. Their life spent together was a happy one.  

Initially, there were struggles but Michelle got through it by focusing on the love she had for her son. She said it was an immediate, immersive feeling that began the second Corban was first put in her arms.

“The first time I held him, it was just instant love,” she said. “I couldn’t believe I got to be a mom. I always wanted to be a mom; I was so thankful.”

Michelle suffers from, what she herself describes as, post-traumatic stress disorder, yet she continues to fight not only through her own grief, but that of others as well, as a newly certified grief educator.

“I can be peer to peer support,” she said. “You just be with them and sit with them. Let them talk. Whatever might be bothering them, whatever comes up. It’s just to acknowledge them and their pain, to help normalize it.”

Michelle posts often on social media about her grief journey and has appeared on two grief podcasts as a guest speaker, (click here or here to listen), but she refuses to stop there. She wants to start a grief group of her own.

She said she could hardly recognize herself after 2020, but she found a lot of comfort in what she does currently.

“I just feel like it’s a big part of my purpose now,” she said. “The grief work that I do now is how I still mother him.”

Michelle said, as a bereaved mother, there are a lot of things she hates: people telling her she’s strong, people telling her to be happy because that’s what Corban would want, but most of all … she hates the world continuing on without her son.

“We mainly just want people to acknowledge our grief and ask us about our child,” she said. “Say their name.

“Don’t forget.”