Category: Obituaries

Beth worked for the University of Wisconsin for 31 years until her retirement in 1999.

Over the years, employed by the University of Wisconsin, Gene was an artist and worked in the Bureau of Audio-Visual Instruction, Editorial and Communications Services, and the Department of Agricultural Journalism. He also taught drawing, layout and illustration at the UW.

Don was also a member of the UW Dermatology Department, holding the rank of Associate Clinical Professor during this period. He loved teaching and twice, he received the Dermatology residents award.

Noted: Reared in Chicago, Ms. Gordon attended the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin. She moved to New York City when she was 19, to pursue a career in entertainment. She landed parts on radio and live television programs, including “Studio One” and “Robert Montgomery Presents.” She began doing mostly commercials in the mid-1950s.

As an extension vegetable crops specialist and researcher with a joint appointment in horticulture and agricultural economics, John specialized in potatoes, developing a production and management program for growing the Russet Burbank variety successfully in Wisconsin.

He worked most recently at the Do-It Tech Store on the UW campus before retiring in 2017.

Rhea lived and worked in Madison for 32 years, first at the Preschool Lab on the UW-Madison Campus and later in other organizations related to the care and education of children.

She worked as a cashier for UW Housing for several years.

Though his application to Harvard Law School was accepted, he chose the University of Wisconsin law school, closer to home, and was editor of the law review there. He worked for a law firm in Milwaukee for several years and was recruited to the Northwestern law faculty in 1961.

Though his application to Harvard Law School was accepted, he chose the University of Wisconsin law school, closer to home, and was editor of the law review there. He worked for a law firm in Milwaukee for several years and was recruited to the Northwestern law faculty in 1961.

He practiced and taught medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics for 23 years, retiring in 2011.

John served two years in the US Army Medical Service Corps before enjoying a long tenure as a scientist, teacher and mentor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in the Department of Anatomy and later the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology.

Her years at UW-Madison included directing major events at UW School of Business, where she taught so many young people the art of hospitality. Eventually on the leadership team that planned and built the Fluno Center.

Roger Pulliam, a champion of equity and inclusion at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater who devoted his life to opening the doors of education for everyone, has died at the age of 77, according to an announcement from UW-W.

He was employed by the University of Wisconsin Physical Plant as an Environmental Services Supervisor before retiring in 1997.

In 1984, she received her Ph.D. in Social Welfare and Sociology and took a position as Assistant Director at the UW-Madison Waisman Center.

Downs worked for about 15 years as a writer in the communications branch of the Sea Grant Program of the University of Wisconsin.

He was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Wisconsin Medical School for over 35 years before retirement in 1989. As a Professor of Psychiatry, he, at one time, chaired the Department of Psychiatry and the Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute.

He was a professor of over 40 years at the University of Wisconsin Law School, a world-renowned expert on policing, and founder of the concept of Problem-Oriented Policing.

She was employed by the American Nurses Association before joining the faculty at the School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Madison until she retired.

In 1964, Mark’s young family moved to Madison, where Mark joined the UW Madison Slavic Language Department, teaching Russian and Czech … In 1979, Mark married Jeanette Blodau. He retired from UW Madison in 1992.

At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he served as Chair of the African Studies Program (1964-48), Chair of the Department of Political Science (1969-72, 1984-87), Associate Dean of the Graduate School (1968-71), and Acting Dean of the College of Letters & Science (1991-92).

She taught high school English and later worked as an administrative assistant, including many years at UW Madison.

In 1985, Dave took a job at the UW-Madison, Dept. of Planning and Construction, where he served as a draftsman and construction project representative from 1985 until 2000.

Jean was a medical secretary with the UW Psychiatry Department for over 30 years.

He also held a number of positions at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he lectured on public policy and long-term care.

In 1966, Diane was accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin-Office of Student Financial Aid. She spent a 32-year career at the university and enjoyed the hard and challenging work of administering scholarship programs, dealing with students’ financial needs and problem solving, especially during registration week periods.

For more than 40 years at the University of Wisconsin, School of Social Work, O’Connell worked as a program administrator, led the graduate admissions process, and created strong working relationships and friendships with many colleagues throughout the university, many of which she maintained after retirement.

She was retired from her career as an editor for the UW Department of Sociology.

In 2004 he became director of Wisconsin Public Radio, his “dream job”: a job that he aspired to and worked toward since that first summer job as a board operator at WHA.

Selly worked as a beloved professor at the Management Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the field of Labor, Human Resources and Management.

Ron worked at the University of Wisconsin Medical School as Director of Medical Education from the beginning of his career until he retired in 2001.

Allee Willis, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter who helped compose the catchy theme song for the TV sitcom “Friends,” as well as hits for the Pointer Sisters and Earth, Wind & Fire, and who was described in a Washington Post headline as “the most interesting woman you’ve never heard of,” died Dec. 24 at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 72.

After studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she moved to New York and landed a job as a secretary at Columbia Records, working first as a copywriter before turning her attention to songwriting and performing.

Ms. Willis went to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she majored in journalism and graduated in 1969. The upheaval of the 1960s transformed her, she told the university’s alumni magazine this year. “I started off a sorority girl,” she said, “and ended up marching and demonstrating.”

Willis was born and grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and said she liked to hang out outside Motown Records to listen to the recording artists play. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a journalism major and sorority member.

Last September, on a beautiful sunny day at Camp Randall Stadium, a woman in brightly colored pants and shirt stood next to the University of Wisconsin marching band director and helped conduct the well-known “Friends” TV theme.

Allee Willis, a UW-Madison alumna and two-time Grammy winner with notable writing credits including the “Friends” theme song, has died, according to Willis’ longtime partner. She was 72.

Mr. Meyer completed high school in New York City and graduated in 1951 from the University of Wisconsin, where he edited the student newspaper and a literary magazine.

Rick retired from an accomplished career at the UW after 23 years, where he made an impact on every person (and animal) he came in contact with.

Stephen William Porter was born Feb. 22, 1939, in Milwaukee, where his father was a buyer for the New York-based Gimbels department store. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1960 and from its law school in 1966. (He worked as an accountant between degrees.)

Diane had worked at WPS and then later the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents and the UW Department of Psychology.

She worked for the UW-Madison Sociology Department for over 20 years and was proud of her work supporting graduate students.

Noted: Ebben earned his Air Force commission in 1982, the same year he received a bachelor’s in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1984 he joined the 176th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Truax Field in Madison as an A-10 aircraft commander.

Glen Everett Myers, age 85, of Madison, Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, passed away peacefully on December 2, 2019 at UW Hospital.

Noted: At the University of Wisconsin-Madison she wrote a humor column called “Solid Gould” for The Daily Cardinal and graduated in 1965 with a double major in art history and German. She briefly attended Columbia University’s master’s program in art history and spent a year writing ad copy for J.C. Penney in New York.

Cathy began her lifelong work in 1965 with the University Extension. She spent 36 years working in Milwaukee, first training mothers who were on welfare to move to employment, and then 10 years helping the Milwaukee community of Hmong immigrants. One of her last major projects was Grandparents Who Raise Grandchildren

Glen Everett Myers, age 85, of Madison, Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, passed away peacefully on December 2, 2019 at UW Hospital with his devoted wife, Susan, and daughter, Christine, by his side.

In 1977, she then moved to Madison and worked for UW as an auditor but spent most of her time at UW Physical Plant accounting until her retirement in 1998.

He was born on April 4, 1959 in Omu-Aran, Nigeria, the son of Fako Olaniyan and Bolajoko Aborisade Sajiku. He married Mojisola Adeyemo on August 22, 1988 in Ithaca, NY.

He was the Louise Durham Mead Professor of English and Wole Soyinka Professor of the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In his 18 years at UW–Madison, he served as department chair of African Cultural Studies, as well as a Senior Fellow and Interim Director at the Institute for Research in the Humanities. He was an internationally-recognized scholar of African, African American, and Caribbean literatures, post-colonial studies, genre studies and popular culture studies.

He is survived by his wife, Mojisola Olaniyan, who is the assistant dean and director, Academic Enhancement at University of Wisconsin, Madison Law School and children Bolajoko and Olabimpe.

Beloved UW Professor Tejumola Olaniyan died suddenly on Saturday. He was 60 years old.

Walker joined the faculty at the School of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He remained in that position until he retired in January 1995.

Joel returned to Madison in 1960, and over the following 19 years assumed various administrative positions at UW-Madison: program advisor at the Wisconsin Union; student organization advisor at the Dean of Students Office; assistant director at the Academic Computing Center; and assistant chancellor at the Chancellor’s Office.

After World War II, he worked for the University of Wisconsin-Madison as Professor of Engineering Drawing and Descriptive Geometry, and Associate Dean of Engineering-Freshmen. He won the Benjamin Smith Reynolds award and stipend for excellence in teaching in 1979. He retired as Dean Emeritus in 1982.

He was employed at the UW-Primate Center for 36 years, retiring in 1995.

Skornicka received a bachelor’s degree in political science from UW-Madison in 1959 and a master’s of public policy and administration in 1975. He served as assistant chancellor at the university before his term as mayor from 1979 to 1983.

Edwin William Stephan Jr. , known as Ed, was born Dec. 15, 1931, in Madison, Wis. He studied mathematics, accounting and economics at the University of Wisconsin but didn’t finish his degree before being drafted into the Army.