May 11, 2026
When Bob Irvine walked into the Air Quality Division (AQD) in 1980, he wasn’t entirely sure where his career would take him. What he did know was that he wanted meaningful work — and that he preferred something other than traditional chemical engineering. More than four decades later, Bob has become a quiet part of Michigan’s clean-air efforts, helping to shape policies, nurturing staff, and guiding the State Implementation Plan (SIP) Development Unit through some of its most technically challenging and politically sensitive milestones.
But his story begins long before SIPs and rulebooks.
Bob earned his degree in chemical engineering from Michigan State University in 1974, following two years at Delta College. Even then, he wasn’t entirely sure engineering was his calling. After graduation, he spent time cooking, doing maintenance work, and taking on assorted odd jobs before moving into consulting work that included drafting.
It was a Christian group — not a classroom or job posting — that eventually steered him toward air quality. There, he met long-term air permit engineer Paul Schleusener, who talked about the job in a way that stuck with Bob. It wasn’t heavy on engineering, and it sounded like something he could enjoy.
That group also brought something even more important into his life: Marilyn. The two married on April 4, 1981—a date that later became extra special as the birthday of their youngest granddaughter. Today, Bob and Marilyn share three sons and three grandchildren.
When Bob joined the AQD in 1980, the SIP Group was tiny. The Clean Air Act had been updated only a few years earlier, and Michigan was just beginning its work on ozone controls and volatile organic compound (VOC) regulations. With handwritten documents, indoor smoking, typewriters, and microfiche readers, the work environment bore little resemblance to the digital, fast-paced AQD of today
Bob Irvine works on rulemaking circa 1982 Communication was slower. Research into the basis for new rules required physical digging in actual paper documents. Contact with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was limited to some awkward conference calls in sad-colored conference rooms around a speaker phone. Meetings often meant driving to a site or welcoming company representatives to Lansing.
But if the pace was slower, the impact was no less significant.
Bob first served as an environmental engineer and worked under division directors Lee Jaeger, Bob Miller, and Dennis Drake. In the mid-1990s, he stepped into the supervisory role of the Strategy Development Unit (now called the SIP Development Unit), a position he continues to hold.
Among the many regulatory contributions Bob has made, the VOC rules continue to stand out to him. They laid the groundwork for reducing ozone and improving air quality statewide. Early on, he worked on the Part 6 rules and later the Part 7 rules, guided by evolving EPA expectations and spirited negotiations with industry. He recalls the creation of Table 32 — a negotiation without existing EPA guidance — as well as auto assembly plant emissions rules that were among the most complex and politically charged efforts of his career.
One of his most memorable accomplishments came much later, with the sulfur dioxide (SO₂) SIP. After years of effort, Michigan was able to demonstrate the necessary modeling and monitoring results to return the Wayne County nonattainment area back to attainment of the standard. The work included facility visits, federally enforceable permit limits, federal intervention after mediation failed, and thorny questions about how to make companies do what the state needed. This progress mattered deeply to someone who grew up driving into Saginaw as a child and seeing a yellow haze from local foundries. Bob not only helped guide the technical work, he found genuine satisfaction in the collaborative process along the way.
Over time, Bob learned a key truth of rulemaking: If no one is entirely happy with the rule, you probably got it right.
Ask Bob what keeps him working, and he answers quickly and without hesitation: the people.
Remote work has improved balance, but it’s his team that brings him real pride. He talks about how younger staff help keep him thinking young, how he feels both excited for them and protective of them, and how deeply invested he is in their growth. Watching them gain confidence and develop expertise has become one of the most meaningful parts of his career.
Even after more than four decades with the AQD, Bob finds the work engaging because every project brings something new. He enjoys the step-by-step nature of SIP development and taking part in the long arc of Michigan’s air-quality progress. That slow, steady march toward a cleaner future — paired with a team he respects and enjoys — is what makes the job meaningful to him.
From handwritten memos and microfiche to digital modeling and remote collaboration, Bob has seen the AQD transform dramatically. Yet through all those changes, one thing has remained constant: his steady, thoughtful leadership.
Bob Irvine’s career is a testament to the impact one person can have when they bring patience, curiosity, and care to their work—and to the people around them. His legacy is written in clearer skies, stronger rules, and the many staff whose careers he helped shape.
Bob Irvine with his 45 year+ award, surrounded by AQD SIP staff, in front of the Stabenow Building in Lansing. Media Contact:
