The Rev. Gregory Guice did what for many people would be unthinkable: He forgave the drunken driver who killed his daughter.
In March 2007, Morgan Guice, a senior at Purdue University, was on spring break in Florida when the car she was riding in was rear-ended by Jonathan Robbins. Nine months later, Guice went before a judge in Panama City, Fla., to beg for leniency at Robbins' sentencing. Guice also promised to "adopt" the 23-year-old, pray with him, write letters and visit.
"It was very touching," Guice says of that moment. "I showed him, 'What you took from me, I give to you. I'm going to stay on you. You are not going to be a lost soul.' "
His actions reflected the soul of a man who idolized other great leaders -- the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X.
The world had never before seen men like them, and during the hearing, Circuit Judge Dedee Costello added to that list Guice, chief spiritual officer at Unity Church of Lake Orion.
It would have been too easy not to forgive, Guice says.
William Hightower, his best friend since age 12, says Guice has always wanted to do what was best, even when it wasn't comfortable.
"It's typical Guice," he says. "I remember him saying if things are too easy to do, you should examine them to see if they are right."
Guice, a native Detroiter, recalls times when he was young like Robbins, drove drunk and could have killed someone. He remembers when people helped him when he battled stuttering, polio and the death of his father at age 12.
People who know Guice say he's always looking for good.
Ask him how he's doing, and he'll respond, "Positive."
One of his first initiatives in Lake Orion was creating a community-wide project called Look for the Good. He began convincing local businesses and organizations to help others despite the bad economy and constant negative news.
As part of that project, Guice convinced 25 young people at Crossroads for Youth, a program for troubled young people in Oxford, to compete in an essay contest, writing 1,000 words about what is right and good about their lives.
In his effort to help others, the former teacher spends Tuesday mornings counseling people battling drug addiction.
"We have to become conscious of each other and value each other. We are each other's keeper."
Kimberly Hayes Taylor / The Detroit News
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