Category: Obituaries

In 1970, he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he was known to hold office hours sailing on Lake Mendota and where he was professor emeritus at the time of his death.

His death was announced by Persia Davis, his daughter, who said he had been in hospice care for the last two years. Mr. Davis had taught music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Beginning in 1972, Joan was Program Advisor and Volunteer Services Coordinator for the Wisconsin Union, retiring in 1980.

Schmidt worked for the UW-Madison Department of Kinesiology to retirement.

After working for the State of Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau she landed her “dream job” as an attorney for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Richard Davis, the internationally renowned jazz bassist who taught at the University of Wisconsin for more than 40 years, has passed away at the age of 93, his daughter Persia Davis confirmed. He died Wednesday afternoon after two years in hospice care.

Davis’ daughter Persia confirmed her father’s death Thursday on both a memorial page and to Madison 365; Davis taught at the University of Wisconsin for over 40 years, but spent the last two years in hospice care. “We appreciate all the love and support the community has shown him over the years,” Persia Davis added.

Davis’ daughter Persia confirmed her father’s death Thursday on both a memorial page and to Madison 365; Davis taught at the University of Wisconsin for over 40 years, but spent the last two years in hospice care. “We appreciate all the love and support the community has shown him over the years,” Persia Davis added.

She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia; a bureau director for Wisconsin’s Department of Health and Human Services; the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin; and a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, sharing with a new generation of social workers her passion for public policy.

She worked for UW Madison for many years, including in the History of Medicine Department and as the administrative assistant to the dean of the School of Education. She retired in 1999.

Nicholas Hitchon, the University of Wisconsin engineering professor who appeared in the acclaimed “Up” series of British documentary movies, died from complications of throat cancer at age 65.

He worked for the Pet Milk Company in New Glarus until its closing in 1962, in construction for a short time, and finally for UW Madison Administrative Data Processing until his retirement, where he was a manager of student service analysts and programmers responsible for the design, development and maintenance of student data programs and systems.

He worked for the Pet Milk Company in New Glarus until its closing in 1962, in construction for a short time, and finally for UW Madison Administrative Data Processing until his retirement, where he was a manager of student service analysts and programmers responsible for the design, development and maintenance of student data programs and systems.

His proudest moments were constructing a low-cost filmless radiographic system that can perform all the functions required of a field hospital during his years in Department of Medical Physics at UW-Madison with his good friend Dr. Melvin P. Siedband.

Nicholas Hitchon, whose life was chronicled in the acclaimed “Up” series of British documentaries, beginning when he was a boy in the English countryside in 1964 and continuing through the decades as he grew to become a researcher and professor at the University of Wisconsin, died on July 23 in Madison, Wis. He was 65.

Fred joined the Agricultural Engineering faculty of Michigan State in 1956. He became an Assistant Dean at MSU in 1966, before coming to the University of Wisconsin in 1967 as Chairman of the Department of Agricultural Engineering. While at Madison, Fred worked with his colleagues to gain professional accreditation for the Agricultural Engineering Department. He especially enjoyed teaching classes and mentoring his graduate students from all over the world.

That same year, Dr. Ramirez joined the Department of Neurosurgery at UW Hospital and made many contributions. He was an outstanding teacher and mentor for both medical students and residents.

After moving to Madison, Myra worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Information Technology until retirement.

That same year, Dr. Ramirez joined the Department of Neurosurgery at UW Hospital and made many contributions. He was an outstanding teacher and mentor for both medical students and residents. For many years, Dr. Ramirez oversaw the success of the neurosurgical residency training program.

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 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.

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).

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.

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.