Skip to main content

Category: Obituaries

Coach, organ transplant advocate Trey Schwab dead at 50

Channel3000.com

Prominent organ transplant advocate and former Marquette men’s assistant basketball coach Trey Schwab has died. After receiving his transplant, he stepped down as assistant coach to work for UW Hospital. He became a vigorous advocate for organ donation and transplants.

Magli, Yvonne L.

Madison.com

Yvonne had a long and productive career as an academic staff member at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. She joined Ophthalmology, then a Division of the Surgery Department in 1960 and, using her innate artistic talent, quickly mastered the then new techniques of binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy and stereoscopic retinal photography.

Senn, Professor Emeritus Alfred Erich

Madison.com

He taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also as Doctor Honoris Causa at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Over his career, Al authored eight books, several monographs, and numerous scholarly articles. His publications are still in use by universities around the world.

Rake, Leo Thomas

Madison.com

Leo was a research assistant at the UW-Madison Horticulture Department for 37 years, focusing on disease resistance, and herbicide and pesticide development. He worked primarily with Wisconsin’s potato and cranberry growers until his retirement in 1987.

Johnson, David B.

Madison.com

Johnson joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, in the Department of Economics, in 1957. He served as associate chairman and chairman of the department from 1962 to 1968. After a year of leave at the National University of Singapore, he returned to the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin and later became Dean of International Studies and programs from 1972 to 1980. He served simultaneously for two years as Director of the Industrial Relations Research Institute from 1978 to 1981 and as Director of the Center for Development from 1984 to 1988, when he retired from the university.

Hiebing, Roman George

Madison.com

Through his teaching of disciplined marketing planning, Roman both inspired and scared the hell out of hundreds of UW-Madison students. He made marketing feel very much like science, not just the art that they thought it was.

Anderson, Jean Wood

Madison.com

Jean worked for the UW’s Engineering College as a programmer on the school’s early computer – the WISC, and then worked on a monumental project developing a computerized Dictionary of American Regional English.

Past State FFA Officer Killed in Ski Mishap

Wisconsin Ag Connection

A recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has died as a result of a skiing accident. Bethany L. Rieth, 24, Oconto Falls, passed away Saturday morning at Divine Savior Hospital shortly after the mishap occurred at Cascade Mountain Ski Hill near Portage.

Giese, Mrs. Marjorie F.

Madison.com

Marjorie retired in 1987 from her position as office manager of the Molecular Biology Laboratory on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Owens, Glenn D.

Madison.com

Glenn worked for the University of Wisconsin as Assistant to the Vice President of Administration.

Elphick, James F. “Jim”

Madison.com

He was employed by the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and was the Shepherd of the UW Sheep Research Center in Arlington, Wis.

Wang, Dr. Chester C.

Madison.com

In 1965 when Chester accepted a position in the East Asian Studies department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Chester would remain on the faculty until he retired in 1997.

Patt, Eunice Mae “Oma”

Madison.com

After many years as a homemaker, she took great pride in her work at the UW-Madison Purchasing Department and retired after 20 years of service.

Henning, K. Louise

Madison.com

After completing her undergraduate and graduate degrees at UW-Madison, Louise became one of five reference librarians at UW’s Memorial Library. She later became the Art Reference and Assistant Art Librarian for Kohler Art Library at the Elvehjem Museum (now the Chazen), retiring from this position in the early 1980s.

Dixon, Phillip Curtis

Madison.com

He was hired as a police officer with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department in December 1964 and proudly served the university community until January 1994 when he retired as a Police Captain.

Berkowitz, Leonard

Wisconsin State Journal

Leonard Berkowitz, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Vilas Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. Dr. Berkowitz served on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin at Madison from 1955 to 1989.

National and area notables who died in 2015

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Stanley Kutler, 80. University of Wisconsin-Madison historian and pre-eminent American legal and constitution scholar who waged successful battle to make public Richard Nixon’s secret White House recordings. April 17.

Shah, Dr. Vinod K.

Madison.com

Shah immigrated to the United States in 1965 and joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1966, first as a post-doctoral fellow and then as a research scientist. During his time at the UW, he became a leading researcher in the Department of Bacteriology and an internationally recognized figure in the study of nitrogenase, enzymes that allow organisms to fix atmospheric nitrogen. His pioneering work synthesizing the iron-molybdenum cofactor (FeMoCo) remains central to research in the field decades after its publication in journals such as Nature, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Biochemistry, and Journal of Biological Chemistry. In 1992, his distinguished career was honored with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research. He retired from UW in 1998 with emeritus status as a senior scientist.

Steinbach, Shirley M.

Madison.com

Shirley was on the staff of WisTEP of the UW-Madison campus for 12 years, where she and others developed and facilitated graduate level Science summer courses for classroom science teachers.

Bless, Robert Charles

Madison.com

Bob joined the staff of the Astronomy Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1958 and retired as professor emeritus in 1994. His dedication to astronomy education extended far beyond the academic community and helped set a pattern of outreach to the general public now widely followed by NASA and other institutions. The clearest manifestation of that dedication was his founding, in 1990, of UW Space Place.

Pellegrino, Ernie Jr., M.D.

Madison.com

Pellegrino was a Clinical Associate Professor of the Department of Surgery at the UW-Madison Medical School where he trained several generations of residents in orthopaedic surgery.

Sattler, Carol Ann

Madison.com

Carol (was) an Electron Microscopist and well published cancer researcher while working for the University of Wisconsin-Madison for over 30 years.

Van Ryzin, Gary J.

Madison.com

After years in the private sector (CUNA, Full Compass, Great Lakes Higher Education) he joined his beloved UW-Madison as a contract administrator in RSP, and spent the last seven years as the Astronomy Department Administrator.

Gene Amdahl, Pioneer of Mainframe Computing, Dies at 92

New York Times

Noted: In 1952 he received his doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It was in graduate school that his interest in the nascent field of digital computers took root. For his Ph.D. thesis, he drafted a design for what became known as the Wisconsin Integrally Synchronized Computer, or W.I.S.C., an early digital computer.

Schuff, Craig Martin

Madison.com

Noted: He began graduate studies in 2008 at the University of Wisconsin where he was a researcher at the Fusion Technology Institute and a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering.

Craig Schuff, paralyzed researcher, UW-Madison engineering graduate student, dies

Wisconsin State Journal

Craig Schuff’s heart and academic journey carried on more than four years after he was paralyzed in a Lake Monona diving accident that damaged his spinal cord. Schuff, 30, a quadriplegic since 2011, died Oct. 24.His advisers at UW-Madison said he was less than a year from finishing his doctorate in engineering, focusing on innovative nuclear research that deserves to be continued.

Lukes, Shelby

Madison.com

Shelby joined as a faculty member at UW School of Nursing in the fall of 1967, where she taught nursing and retired from the UW in March 1998 as an assistant clinical professor.

Shain, Mildred Ruth “Millie”

Madison.com

Mildred was the wife of Irving Shain, former UW–Madison chancellor from 1977-87. She was a gracious host to thousands of visitors to the Olin House, the official residence of the Chancellor. She enjoyed the interaction with both faculty and students – and cheered loudly at many Badgers sporting events.

Meier, Gladys Stella (Schlagenhauf)

Madison.com

She worked in student admissions for the University of Wisconsin and became the registrar for the UW Centers when it began in 1964. She was employed by the University of Wisconsin for 39 years, retiring in 1985.

Around Town: Professor Claudia Card lived good life, good death

Wisconsin State Journal

Claudia Card, an internationally known UW-Madison professor and a leading expert in the philosophy of evil, died what she considered a “good” death. At a celebration of her life Sunday at the Pyle Center on campus, her niece, Melissa Card, 36, quoted from a post her aunt made on her online CaringBridge site four months ago, when she said that while everyone dies, not everyone is fortunate enough to have a good death.