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Category: Obituaries

Richard Wilbur Johnson

Wisconsin State Journal

He retired from UW-Madison in 1997 as Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology and as Director of Training at the University Counseling Service.

Frank Emspak

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1991, he applied to work at the School for Workers in Madison, WI, and started another chapter of his life.

Ralph Andrew Hawley

Wisconsin State Journal

Soon after, the moved to Madison, where in 1955 Ralph was hired by John Bowers at the UW Medical School to be Business Manager but was immediately put to work shepherding the Alumni Association as his major focus for 34 yeas.

UW-Milwaukee chancellor, others reflect on Michael Lovell’s legacy at Marquette

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The last time University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone saw Marquette University President Michael Lovell in person was about a month ago. Over beers at Cafe Hollander on Downer Avenue, they caught up on their high-pressure jobs, their families and their futures.

Both leaders were diagnosed with cancer in recent years: Mone announced he had lymphoma in 2020 and Lovell revealed he had a rare cancer known as a sarcoma in 2021. The experience bonded the leaders of Milwaukee’s two largest universities even closer together.

Burton Wagner Obituary (1941 – 2024)

Wisconsin State Journal

Burt’s area of expertise was Healthcare Law and he advised nursing homes, doctors, acupuncturists, and hospitals. He taught courses in the School of Nursing and in the Law School at the University of Wisconsin (Madison).

Dennis Gunderson

Wisconsin State Journal

For three years he taught at UW Stout in Menomonie. The last fifteen years of his career he worked as a research engineer at Forest Products Lab in Madison.

Carol Enid Frykenberg

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1970 she was employed by the School of Music at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, serving as Undergraduate Advisor in Music Education, and for ten years, from 1976 to 1986, also as administrator of the Summer Music Clinics for junior and senior high school students. She retired from the university in 1998.

Melvin Frank Butor

Wisconsin State Journal

The last 28 years of his career were at the UW- Madison in the Art Department becoming an Emeritus Professor.

Jacqueline Marie Captain

Wisconsin State Journal

Jackie also worked in editorships; Professional Project Manager at American Family Insurance; and Administrative and Research Assistant to Dean, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

David Lee Wilson

Wisconsin State Journal

For several decades, he worked happily in two half-time jobs at UW-Madison, the first as a technical writer at Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), an academic unit that he first joined in 1966. In 1974, he began concurrent employment as a computer programmer at the Waisman Center, a UW research hub on developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases.

Kim G. Nilsson

Wisconsin State Journal

He was subsequently hired as Professor in the Department of Scandinavian Studies, where he taught Finnish and Scandinavian Linguistics. During his time at the University of Wisconsin, he chaired several faculty committees and on two occasions he was the Chair of Scandinavian Studies.

Florence A. Filley

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1963, she moved to Madison, WI, to work as a Clinical Instructor teaching in the area of fluency disorders in the Speech and Hearing Clinics at UW-Madison in addition to maintaining her own private practice. Her work at UW also included chairing or serving on a number of university committees as well as elected to serve on the department’s review committee from 1987-1991.

Robert Edward Terrell

Wisconsin State Journal

Bob went on to achieve his doctorate in High Energy Particle Physics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (1970) where he conducted post-doctoral research and taught with a multi-disciplinary team at the Marine Studies Center and the Institute for Environmental Studies.

Leslie L. Thimmig

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1971, Les became a member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin – Madison to direct the composition program. Later, Les added woodwind performance and jazz studies to his teaching curriculum. Les was completing his 53rd year at UW-Madison when he passed.

Lawrence David Shriberg

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1970, following clinical work in Bridgeport Connecticut, Larry joined the faculty of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at UW-Madison. He began his prolific research career at the Waisman Center where he established the Phonology Clinic and built what may be the largest database in the world of recordings of children’s speech.

Dr. Ronald (Ron) David Schultz

Wisconsin State Journal

After two persistent years, Dr. Tass Deuland finally convinced Ron to be the inaugural chair of the Department of Pathobiological Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin when the school opened in 1983. He remained chair until 2016.

Margaret H. Fose

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1946, Margaret accepted a position as membership secretary at the UW Memorial Union. She married Dale Fose on August 28, 1948 at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Madison. When their first son was born in 1949, Margaret began her career as a stay-at-home mom until 1979 when she returned to work at the UW Memorial Union Director’s Office. She retired in 1988.

Georgia M. Shambes

Wisconsin State Journal

She became a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy in 1968 after receiving her PhD in physical education and anatomy. During her 20-plus years in this Department she played an important leadership role, by helping to develop the graduate program in therapeutic science and by serving as coordinator of the Physical Therapy program.

Ronald J. Reynolds

Wisconsin State Journal

As a Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, astrophysics was both his career and his passion.

Professor John (Jack) E. Johnson

Wisconsin State Journal

After spending a short time in industry, he joined the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin in 1965 and retired in 1990. While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison he taught many different courses in the area of structural engineering and developed special courses in thin shell structures.

Anne Mary Donnellan

Wisconsin State Journal

At a time when autistic children were denied admission to public school, her founding of Los Niños, an early haven of acceptance for autistic children, was a testament to both her empathy and her drive for practical solutions. This same blend fueled her academic achievements – a PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a position as a beloved professor and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Robert Allen Rancourt

Wisconsin State Journal

Robert worked at Ray-O-Vac for 12 years; and later as an Administrator with the UW – School of Medicine and Public Health’s Center for Health Policy and Program Evaluation (CHPPE) and the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute. He retired from the University after more than 30 years in 2009.

Mary Alma Pankratz

Wisconsin State Journal

For more than 30 years, Mary worked for the State of Wisconsin finishing her career as a program assistant at the UW Carbone Cancer Center where she often joked that she started at the Cancer Center BC (before Carbone).

Albert “Al” Harlan Ellingboe

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1983, he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, as a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology with a joint appointment in the Department of Genetics. Al was an international recognized authority on the genetics of host-pathogen interactions.

David George Hinds

Wisconsin State Journal

He joined University of Wisconsin Madison-Extension as an Assistant Professor and Community Development Educator in Sauk, Kenosha and Racine counties.  He was promoted to Professor and named Director of UW-Extension Local Government Center in Madison, WI.

Peter Higgs, a Giant of Particle Physics, Dies at 94

Scientific American

Many physicists took to X, formerly Twitter, to pay tribute to Higgs and share their favourite memories of him. “RIP to Peter Higgs. The search for the Higgs boson was my primary focus for the first part of my career. He was a very humble man that contributed something immensely deep to our understanding of the universe,” posted Kyle Cranmer, physicist at the University of Wisconsin Madison and previously a senior member of the Higgs search team at the CMS.

Julius Adler

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1960, Julius returned to the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics. There he discovered how bacteria sense attractants and repellants; this research, the study of “Chemotaxis,” was carried out for 40 years. Julius opened up this field; there are now over 1000 scientists, worldwide, studying it.

Lois Jean (Raisbeck) Herrling

Wisconsin State Journal

Lois was employed at Springs Window Fashions, formerly Grabers of Middleton, for several years and later at UW Hospitals and the Physical Plant in Madison as a housekeeper and janitor for almost 23 years. She often spoke with kindness of all the caring people she came in contact with and enjoyed her work very much.

Shelley M. Lagally

Wisconsin State Journal

She believed that further education would offer new opportunities and so she earned, with honors, an MA in Public Policy and Administration with a concentration in bioethics from The LaFollette Institute at UW and immediately accepted a position as a staff member in the office of the Health Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University. Shelley’s charm often won the day in vital ethics deliberations.

Robert A. Herbsleb

Wisconsin State Journal

He was employed by the University of Wisconsin Madison Space Science and Engineering Center for over 30 years. Robert received Emeritus status July 20, 2001.

Frans de Waal, biologist who championed animal intelligence and emotion, dies at 75

National Geographic

“His most influential insights, in my view, can be divided into three areas,” says Strier. The first was that
“nonhuman primates are more thoughtful than we thought, in both their cognitive abilities and in their empathy
and morality,” he says, spurring more ethical treatment of primates. The second: Frans’ “fine-grained observations
of individuals in social groups, powerful experimental and analytical designs, and informative comparisons among
closely-related species” showed the scientific community that a tremendous amount can be observed and
concluded about primates through non-invasive techniques. The third, Streir says, is that “through his work we
have gained new perspectives” on the evolution of our own behavior as humans.

Frans de Waal, who explored empathy among apes, dies at 75

The Washington Post

He moved to the United States in 1981 to take a take a position at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison and subsequently lectured at the University of Wisconsin. In 1991, he became a research professor at Emory and later was named director of its primate center.

Viola V. Olson

Wisconsin State Journal

Before her daily home office was in use, Viola did work for the State of Wisconsin Purchasing Department for many years on the UW campus.

Philip A. Helmke

Wisconsin State Journal

Phil was a professor in the Department of Soil Science at UW-Madison from 1973 to 2007. He skillfully taught graduate courses in environmental chemistry and trained and inspired many graduate students from around the world to conduct research about the soil-water-plant system.

Ronald C. Bornstein

Wisconsin State Journal

His public broadcasting career included posts as Production Manager of the University of Michigan Television Center, assisting in the development of Hawaii Public Television, General Manager of WHA Radio and Television and Director of Telecommunications for the University of Wisconsin-Extension, Vice President for Telecommunications at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Acting President of National Public Radio.

Elizabeth Roberts

Wisconsin State Journal

Undaunted by having no idea where Wisconsin was, in 1949, they caught a train to Madison. Performing well in her graduate studies with Konrad Akert, and after a six month visit to New Orleans (more on that later), she joined the UW faculty. She was drawn to study sports skills.