Category: Obituaries

Back in Madison, Marilyn was employed as an administrative assistant for 20 years at the University of Wisconsin Extension Services.

In addition, he was a clinical associate professor with the UW Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Bert also worked at the University of Wisconsin Physical Sciences Laboratory. He transferred to the UW Chemistry Department, where he worked for 20 years until his retirement in 1987.

After her kids were grown, she worked part-time for the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus housing, and retired in December of 1997.

She completed medical school and residency at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, where she helped create a part-time residency program that allowed her to spend more time with her kids. She joined the UW faculty in 1998 and practiced as a general pediatrician at the UW Health West Clinic for 20 years.

Once settled in Madison, Wis., Helen joined Bethel Lutheran Church, bought a piano, and began a career in financial aid at the University of Wisconsin. Helen enjoyed helping students attain their education, and for her, the fulfillment of a regular job.

As an avid supporter of University of Wisconsin athletics, Ray also spent over 40 years on Badger Football and Badger Basketball Booster boards, including terms as Vice President and President of the Badger Basketball Booster club.

Carie went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she joined the women’s rowing team in the fall of 1973.

In 1976, Ben and Anita, and their four daughters, moved to Madison, where he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Department of Anesthesiology. He became Director of Anesthesia Research and was active in research, teaching and clinical practice.

She retired in 1991 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she served as a political science and pre-law advisor.

Arlie worked as an insulator for over 40 years and was a member of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Local 19 Union. He also worked for UW-Madison his final years before retirement.

Elizabeth was a Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She also served as a Senior Scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, and in the Women’s Studies Program until her retirement in 1996, when she was appointed Professor Emerita.

A crowning achievement of Jim’s career was his work with the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication to create the James E. Burgess Chair of Journalism Ethics. The Chair was the cornerstone of what would become the Center for Journalism Ethics, now an internationally recognized hub for reflection, education and activism in the field.

In 1960, now Dr. William P. Birkemeier accepted a professorship at the prestigious University of Wisconsin College of Engineering and moved his family one final time to Madison. As a university professor at a major research-one Institution, Dr. Birkemeier made significant contributions to his discipline of electrical and computer engineering.

Wanda worked as a meat wrapper for Kohl’s Food Stores in Madison, and after retiring from there she worked for UW-Madison Housing.

Graves was the star of the first national championship won by a UW varsity women’s team; a two-time Olympian and five-time national rowing team member. She died Sunday.

In 1973, Watkins graduated from Stanford; as a nineteen-year-old undergraduate, she had already completed a draft of a visionary history of Black feminism and womanhood. During the seventies, she pursued graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

hooks attended Stanford University on a scholarship and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English. As a 19-year-old student, she wrote the first draft of what would eventually become her first work of feminist thought, Ain’t I a Woman?, She went on to receive a master’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin in 1976 and a PhD in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1983.

She received a master’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin in 1976 and a doctorate in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1983, with a dissertation on Toni Morrison.

Dr. hooks received a bachelor’s degree in 1973 and studied English literature in graduate school, earning a master’s degree in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a doctorate in 1983 from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she wrote her dissertation on novelist Toni Morrison.

Born Gloria Jean Watkins in Hopkinsville, Kentucky she went on to pen many literary works under the pseudonym bell hooks, a tribute to her great-grandmother that she chose to write using lowercase letters to focus attention on her words rather than herself. After receiving a Bachelors’ degree from Stanford University, a Master’s from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her doctorate a the University of California – Santa Cruz.

She attended segregated schools in her native Christian County, Ky., before earning her undergraduate degree at Stanford University in California, a master’s degree in English at the University of Wisconsin and a doctorate in literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952 in the segregated town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and later gave herself the pen name bell hooks in honor of her maternal great-grandmother. She loved reading from an early age, majored in English at Stanford University and received a master’s in English from the University of Wisconsin, where she began writing “Ain’t I a Woman.”

She majored in English at Stanford University and received a master’s in English from the University of Wisconsin. It was the 1970s, the height of second wave feminism, but hooks — “this bold young black female from rural Kentucky” — felt apart from the movement and its “white and female comrades.”

He earned BS., MS., and PhD. degrees in Engineering at UW-Madison, and was an instructor in Fluid Mechanics for 3 years at UW-Madison.

She went on to earn her master’s in social work from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1967 and her doctorate in counseling psychology, also from Wisconsin, in 1973.

His parents considered engineering a reliable prospect, and after Boylan Catholic high school, Abloh got his BSc in civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MA in architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology. Though he exploited the skills and tools for making things that were available on the courses – “maker”, not designer, was his preferred way of describing himself – he credited his real education to his first on-campus encounter with an arts library.

“Virgil is a 2003 UW grad and actually got his degree in civil engineering,” explained Sarah Schutt, Executive Director of the UW Alumni Association. “We know now he never pursued engineering as a career, but he shared in several interviews that the problem-solving mindset that he learned in engineering and his base in humanities, he drew from every day in his work in design, music, and all the ways he influenced culture.”

Virgil Abloh, University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni, founder of streetwear brand Off-White and esteemed Louis Vuitton designer, died on Sunday at the age of 41.

Abloh died from cardiac angiosarcoma, rare form of cancer.

He was the Director of Coastal Management for the State of Wisconsin for 10 years and then became the Assistant Director for Outreach for the Sea Grant Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Designer Virgil Abloh, a UW-Madison alumnus and leading fashion executive hailed as the Karl Lagerfeld of his generation, has died of cancer. He was 41.

Abloh studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and obtained a master’s degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He then became Kanye West’s creative director in his early twenties.

Abloh, the son of Ghanaian immigrants, was born in 1980 in Rockford, Illinois. He earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed a master’s degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology; a foundation that would later influence his broader practice.

Alboh was born in Rockford, Illinois, on September 30, 1980. He studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later earned a master’s degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

During his career at the University of Wisconsin, Andy managed the electronics shop for the chemistry department for many years, providing electronics support for the department’s research, teaching, and service missions. He was known for his ability to communicate and teach important electronics fundamentals to non-specialists.

After 25 years of supporting rural hospitals in Wisconsin, Roger retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering in 2006.

Ronny taught at both Cornell and the University of Wisconsin before her marriage to Jerome F. Saeman on June 25, 1949.

He was a board-certified urologist, member of the American Urological Society, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and Clinical Professor of Urology at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Vic was a professor at UW-Madison for seven years and then chief psychologist at Central State Hospital, then Wisconsin Resource Center, a maximum security mental health facility that was part of Winnebago Mental Health Hospital, where he developed the program for the facility and was liked and respected by staff as well as by residents. He remained lifelong friends with several Ph.D. graduate students who were actively supportive of him, especially in his final years.

In 1963, he took a job in the Physical Plant of UW-Madison, eventually becoming the expert on heating and air conditioning mechanicals, first at UW Hospital on University Avenue, then at the Medical Sciences building on Charter Street, as well as the Bardeen and McArdle Laboratories. He retired from UW in 1993.

After running the Marine Studies Institute on Sapelo Island, Ga., for five years, he moved the family back to Madison, where he began his teaching career with the UW Department of Meteorology. His work as a scientist and teacher took him to remote areas of the earth, including Antarctica, where he studied lakes in dry valleys, and the Northwest Territories of Canada, where there was more lake research to be done.

He taught in UW zoological courses for several years and was a researcher in the Porter Lab for 30 years until his retirement in 2006.

David graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctorate in meteorology in 1968 and had a successful career as a research meteorologist at the UW Space Science & Engineering Center for over five decades.

On Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, Eric David Rothstein, Edgar W. Lacy Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, most loving husband and father, followed stage directions: “Exit, pursued by a bear.”

Lewis then taught French and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, at Wesleyan University (CT) and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Returning to his Alma Mater, he engaged in a variety of administrative and advising positions, among which liaison with the Wisconsin secondary schools, director of the Junior Science, Engineering and Humanities Symposium, the Chancellor’s associate administrative council, the summer orientation, advising and registration program, total quality improvement training, the campus-wide A Campus of Difference diversity training program, foreign language placement and study abroad.

Bob worked as a civil servant for the University of Wisconsin, retiring in 1995. For the last 20 years of his career, he helped students at the UW-Pharmacy School. He was affectionately known as “Beaker Bob.”

In 1960, he joined the UW Department of Geology and Geophysics as a graphic artist. He fondly recalled student seminars, examining the ancient stories which rocks reveal, and swimming in Lake Mendota.

Paul Richard “Dick” Moran, Ph.D., Professor of Radiology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine (1983-1999), Professor of Physics and Distinguished Faculty Fellow of the department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1965-1983), has passed away at home on Oct. 17, 2021, at the age of 85.

She came to the University of Wisconsin in 1957 to re-develop the class piano program and to teach more advanced students, retiring in 1990.

As a professor at the UW Madison School of Medicine, he was a devoted teacher and researcher until his retirement in 1998.

She was employed by the University of Wisconsin for 40 years.

She was employed as a research coordinator by the University of Wisconsin Department of Ophthalmology until her retirement in 1998.

He received an appointment at the University of Virginia, and by 1970 was invited to join the faculty of the English Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with tenure. Herring was a popular teacher of Modernist literature, but in addition had a long career as a scholarly writer and biographer, producing important works on James Joyce and Djuna Barnes.

Ms. Miller attended Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, graduated from Duke University in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and went on to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1986. She then earned a master of law degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

He was a member of the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Wisconsin Surgical Society, the Wisconsin Surgical Club, the General Thoracic Surgical Club and a Professor Emeritus. He had many “firsts” for the University: separating the first conjoined twins, the first lung transplant, the first double lung transplant, and the first heart lung transplant.