Try contacting the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research to see if they can help. That time period I would start with The Detroit News.

www.dsgr.org Click on "Contacts". If you do not get a response from the query researcher, use the Web Form.

Try emailing the Burton Historical Collection of the main Detroit Public Library to see if they have anything on him in their card catalog. If he was well-known, they might have a card for him.

http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/featuredcollection/burton-histo...

If they do have something, I am not sure if they will be able to help with copies, etc., so I would mention that information to the DSGR since most of their meetings are held at the library and they could follow-up, I hope.

Good luck.