Ms. Deer racked up a long list of firsts over the course of her life. She was the first member of her tribe to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the first to receive a graduate degree; she was also the first woman to lead the Menominee and the first woman to lead the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Deer became the first member of the Menominee Nation to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1957 and was the first Native American to receive a master’s in social work from Columbia University. She returned to UW-Madison as a lecturer and later as director of the American Indian Studies program in the early 2000s.
Deer was the first member of the Menominee Tribe to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and went on to become the first Native American to obtain a master’s in social work from Columbia University, according to both schools’ websites.
She was also the first Menominee citizen to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the first Native American to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University.
Calvin began teaching at UW-Madison in 1954, as an instructor and joined the faculty in 1959, in the Department of Agricultural Engineering. He taught the design and construction of agricultural buildings, later expanding to courses in the area of construction administration particularly residential construction.
He also worked as a professional electrical engineer at the UW Physical Sciences Laboratory, where he designed the precursor to the telephone answering machine.
He was employed by the UW Madison Athletic Department. He provided massage therapy to Badger student athletes, mainly football and wrestling.
Nick was about to make a major change in his life, as he moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US in the early 1980s to continue his work in nuclear fusion.
He remained at the university’s Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering for four decades. Nick became a full professor in 1994, and was department chair from 1999 to 2002. He was the author of more than 100 articles and three books in his specialist field.
After receiving his PhD from the University of Tuebingen, he and the love of his life, his wife Margaret, took on the adventure of a lifetime and traveled by freight ship to Wisconsin, intending to stay for three years. There, Klaus became Director of the UW-Madison Geology Museum, a position he held for 34 years, where among other things he led a team to collect and restore the first dinosaur to be displayed in Wisconsin.
During 39 years of teaching first at the University of Wisconsin and later at the University of Virginia, she dazzled undergraduates in always-packed introductory courses with humour-filled lectures and she trained generations of psychologists who now occupy positions in academia, private practice, and government service.
A Wisconsin farm kid that became an accounting professor, Darryl taught managerial accounting at the Pennsylvania State University, then at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Executive MBA program. He later led a nationally recognized distance learning program for engineering executives at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
In 1974, Ron came to the University of Wisconsin, where he spent almost 40 years of his academic career. He retired in 2013, as the William Coleman Professor of the History of Science and Medicine emeritus.
A graduate of West High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BS ’62, MBA ’64), he had a successful career in investment management that allowed him to share his love of the work and his insights both through meeting with and teaching business students, and in supporting and advising the Applied Security Analysis Program (ASAP) in the Wisconsin School of Business.
Peter became an academic librarian, first at UW–Parkside in Kenosha, then at the UW–Madison Instructional Materials Center (now MERIT Library).
In 1990, McCarney and Wyatt were the first two hires on Barry Alvarez’ inaugural Wisconsin staff. They took part in the introductory press conference at the McClain Facility, the setting for Alvarez’ infamous declaration to the fans, “We’re going to build it from the foundation. Don’t know how long it will take. They’d better get season tickets now because before long they probably won’t be able to.’’
She chaired Organismal Biology from 1970 to 1994, and in 1983, Marion was promoted to Associate Professor and became the first female tenured faculty member of the UW–Madison Department of Zoology, gaining full professorship in 1991.
He taught for seven years at the University of Evansville and worked for 32 years at the WARF Institute and subsequent companies, analyzing foods and feeds for metals and teaching employees about the methods for conducting these analyses.
As an administrator, Laura worked for two decades at UW-Madison in various positions including the Poverty Research Institute, University Housing, and UW-Press, to name a few.
Ruth was a stay-at-home mom when the children were young, slowly taking on more hours in administrative roles such as church secretary, eventually working full time as an administrator at UW–Madison.
In 1961, he joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty working in Agriculture Extension. He achieved status as a full professor in 1977. Leonard loved working with students and farmers throughout the state of Wisconsin and the Midwest. He retired in 1996 after 35 years on the faculty.
Lois joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1960 and taught in the Department of Communicative Disorders for 36 years. She retired as Professor Emerita in May 1996. She was beloved by her students and colleagues and truly enjoyed her profession.
Lou served as Professor of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine from 1965-2001, and received emeritus status upon his retirement. He was known for the care and concern he showed his patients, and for being a respected colleague and mentor to younger physicians.
Ms. Kreilick was a noted mosaic artist and Emerita Professor of Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a key figure in the development of public mosaic art in the twentieth century.
After retiring from the UW Madison Department of Letters and Science she kept very active with water aerobics and solving crossword puzzles.
Working in a UW toxicology lab, she was part of a team that researched the harmful effects of Agent Orange, which was used during the Vietnam War. Their work was cited when the U.S. banned the chemical in 1971 and is still referenced today. She also worked as a lecturer teaching entomology, or the study of insects, to undergraduate students.
He was on the faculty at Illinois from 1960 until he received an offer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1966. He was a professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Educational Policy Studies, and History. He served as Dean of the School of Education for 17 years and retired from the University in 1995.
In 1963 he was appointed to the faculty in the English Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and moved his family (then including two daughters, Lisabeth and Sheila) to Madison. At UW he established a program in English as a second language (ESL) for the instruction of international students at the university.
He joined the faculty of the UW-Madison college of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Department of Agronomy, with responsibilities for statewide UW extension weed management education programs. Ron was particularly proud of the Pesticide Applicator Certification program that he developed for the state of Wisconsin which became “The Model” for many other states.
In 1968, he joined the professorial faculty at the UW-Madison College of Engineering. Structural mechanics was his principal research focus, which included the vibrations of aerospace shells, the design of nuclear fusion reactor chambers, the fabrication of microsensors and microactuators, and nanoscale mechanics analysis for the semiconductor industry.
After two years of military service, Joe completed his B.S. degree from UW-Madison in 1959, and his M.S. in 1960. He received his Ph.D. in 1964, and joined the faculty of the Department of Food Science as an Assistant Professor.
William Spriggs, the assistant secretary of labor in the Obama administration and former chief economist for the AFL-CIO, who died at age 68, was such an economist and such a leader.
As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin—where he earned his master’s degree in economics in 1979 and PhD in economics in 1984—Spriggs served as copresident of the Teaching Assistants’ Association (American Federation of Teachers, Local 3220), a groundbreaking campus labor union that fought a successful battle to expand collective bargaining rights for graduate students.
Dr. Spriggs earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Williams College in Massachusetts and attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a master’s degree in 1979 and a doctorate in 1984, both in economics.
Dr. Spriggs graduated in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Williams College in Massachusetts. He received a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1984; a fellow graduate student, Lawrence Mishel, said Dr. Spriggs was the only African American among roughly 150 graduate students in economics at the time.
He attended Williams College as an undergraduate before earning a Masters and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served as an assistant secretary of policy at the US Labor Department from 2009 to 2012, under President Barack Obama.
He worked at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research as a Research Specialist for almost 10 years before starting his almost-30-year career at Promega Corporation as a Senior Scientific Buyer.
After returning to school, she worked for the State, having numerous brief jobs that created many silly stories: at DILIHR, University Hospital, and the UW-Madison Graduate School, where she retired in 2011.
He also worked at the University of Wisconsin as a cook and caterer.
Martha Johnson, wife to “Badger Bob” Johnson and mother to current UW Women’s Hockey Coach Mark Johnson, has passed away at the age of 88.
Dr. Friedlander held faculty positions at Fenn College, Cleveland State University, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, before spending the bulk of his career as Research Professor of Human Development in the Psychology Department at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
Dave had been recruited to become an Assistant Dean in the College of Letters and Science at UW-Madison. He was instrumental in bringing their department into the computer age.
Donald entered and completed the carpenter apprentice program and dedicated his career at the Physical Plant (carpenter shop) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Donald worked at the UW for 31 years and retired in June 1999.
He worked and sailed with his father and was a talented basketball and football player for Badger High School in Geneva Lake. His studies at the University of Wisconsin, however, were cut short when he was drafted into the Korean War.
Upon his return from the service he started his apprenticeship with the Steamfitter Union, Madison Local 394 working for Johnson Controls and later University Wisconsin Madison until he retired.
Noted: He earned a Ph.D. in food science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1972.
Dr. Hans Sollinger, the former chair of transplantation at UW-Madison who pioneered a pancreas transplant technique and developed an anti-rejection drug taken by many transplant patients, died Monday at his home in Madison.
He earned his medical degree at the Medical School of Munich in 1973 and PhD at the University of Munich in 1975. Later that year, an immunobiology research fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison brought him to the US, and eventually he stayed for his surgical residency and transplantation training. During his career, Dr. Sollinger revolutionized the field of transplantation.
Rosemary worked at the University of Wisconsin as assistant to the vice chancellor for 25 years retiring in 1985.
Guil retired Professor Emeritus after 42 with the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin. His academic accomplishments during his time contributed greatly to the field. In 1971, he was the first to identify and describe ophthalmological conditions that were later observed during the AIDS epidemic. His research and clinical practice focused mainly in the areas of diabetic and hypertensive retinopathies.
Mary initially worked for the UW Hospital Cardiovascular Research Department, and was instrumental in assisting with some of the early successes of Dr. Charles Crumpton. Using her excellent typing skills, Mary typed hundreds of doctoral theses for graduate students over the years. She advanced her career as the hospital grew, eventually retiring in 1991 as an administrator with the UW Hospital Department of Medicine.
Robin moved to Madison and became the Operations Manager at the Radisson Inn and Conference Center in 1987, where she met her husband. They were married in 1990, then she worked for UW-Madison in the Department of Information Technology for 20 years.
After his retirement from Foley and Lardner, Larry enjoyed teaching as an adjunct professor at the UW-Madison Law School for 11 years. Larry was passionate about teaching and was recognized for his outstanding work with the Warren H. Stolper Award, an honor that acknowledges excellence in teaching on the part of the Law School’s professors.
He taught Mechanical Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison for over 40 years and founded their Computer Aided Engineering Center (CAE). His teaching and research specialties were geometric modeling and computer-aided design; including the kinematics, dynamics, and simulation of articulated rigid-body mechanical systems.
In 1997, Ed retired from his position as Employment Relations Manager at UW-Madison.
Dolores held a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UW-Eau Claire and a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from UW-Madison, where she worked for the Division of Continuing Studies as a Teaching and Learning Technology Consultant.
He already was a rock star at running hospitals and had options, but agreed to become chief executive officer of the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics (the predecessor to UW Health.) The mammoth hospital we see today on Highland Avenue opened five years after he arrived. Derzon navigated its evolution for 26 years before retiring in 2000.
Ruberta Weaver, the inaugural first lady of what’s now called the University of Wisconsin System and a prominent supporter of husband John Weaver during his presidency, died March 29 at her California home. She was 106.
He started his career as a Junior Librarian at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, and was later appointed Head of Acquisitions at SUNY Buffalo. Gene then became Head of Acquisitions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, until his retirement in 1996. Always active, he held various board and committee positions for many community organizations. Gene received the Librarian of the Year Award for 1991 by the University of Wisconsin, and received a Governor’s Special Award in 1996 for 27 years of dedicated service to the State of Wisconsin.
Upon returning to Madison, he took up his longtime role in the UW administration serving in many capacities, chairing and coordinating several committees governing academic admissions, financial aid and continuing education. Ultimately, he was appointed Associate Vice Chancellor by Chancellor Irving Shain.
He then joined the UW-Madison School of Business academic staff as a Senior Lecturer, teaching International Business and Human Resources Management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels until his retirements from the University in 2000 Scott enjoyed gardening, fishing, tennis, traveling, hiking and camping.
