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Category: Obituaries

Margaret Ward Orsini

Madison.com

Margaret Ward Orsini, age 88, died on Monday, Dec. 13, 2004. Joining the department of anatomy of the UW Medical School as an assistant professor in 1969, she was promoted to associate professor in 1971 and became a full professor in 1973.

Lawrence “Larry” Halle

Madison.com

Lawrence “Larry” Halle, age 84, passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2004. Larry attended law school while being a house fellow in the University of Wisconsin-Madison residence halls. Larry was offered an opportunity to supervise the university housing for married student veterans at the Badger Ordnance Works at Badger Village. When the federal government reclaimed the village in 1951, he returned to UW-Madison where a massive housing building program was about to begin. During the subsequent years, Larry enjoyed many positions within the university housing system including personnel training adviser and assistant director in charge of expansion program and construction.

Caroline Goss Thompson

Madison.com

Caroline Goss Thompson, founder and long-time director of the Occupational Therapy Program at UW-Madison, died on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2004, at the age of 95. She served as director of the Occupational Therapy Program for 31 years, from 1945 to 1976.

UW volleyball: Fitzpatrick’s spirit resonates with Waite

Capital Times

It’s difficult to overlook Margie Fitzpatrick’s accomplishments as a volleyball player at the University of Wisconsin.

Fitzpatrick finished her career in 1987 ranked among the school’s top 10 in every hitting and blocking category, and set records for most aces in a career, season and match. It’s no wonder she was voted the Badgers’ most valuable player in her final two seasons.

Margaret A. Fitzpatrick

Madison.com

“Margie” Fitzpatrick, age 38, passed away peacefully, after a courageous battle with cancer, surrounded by her family, on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004, at the Don and Marilyn Anderson HospiceCare Center, Madison.

Charles O. Beckwith

Madison.com

Charles O. Beckwith, age 69, died on Monday, Dec. 6, 2004. He worked for the University of Wisconsin in the Physicial Department for many years until his retirement.

Joyce Marie Peterson

Madison.com

Joyce Marie Peterson, age 81, of Clintonville, passed away on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2004. She attended the UW-Madison. Prior to retirement Joyce was at the computing center as manager at UW-Madison.

– Eleanore May Oimoen

Madison.com

Eleanore May Oimoen, age 86, of Sauk City, died on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004. After taking a civil service test, she became a clerk in the extension division of the U.W. Other promotions led to jobs in the agricultural journalism department and eventually as secretary in the President’s office, where she served with President E.B. Fred, President Conrad Elveljem, President Fred Harrington and President John Weaver. Due to a brain aneurysm, she retired early at age 64, having worked in the university system for 44 years.

Dean Baxter Mory

Dean Baxter Mory, age 91, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2004, at Mercy Hospital in Janesville. He attended the UW-Madison where he won letters for gymnastics and wrestling and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physical Education. He taught Physical Education at Franklin and Nakoma Elementary Schools before becoming head gymnastics coach and assistant professor in the School of Education at UW-Madison (1949 to 1961).

Gilbert Eugene Buske

Wisconsin State Journal

Gilbert Eugene Buske, 91, died on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2004. He was born on May 18, 1913, in the same farm home as his father, in the township of Anson, Chippewa County, Wisconsin.

After graduating in 1940, he stayed very connected with the University of Wisconsin and its mechanical engineering professors, establishing in 1984 (with wife Gen, also a UW grad) a scholarship program which eventually benefited some 240 engineering students, and this program will continue to provide scholarships for many years to come.

Ruby Mick

Madison.com

Ruby Mick, age 77, passed away on Monday, Dec. 6, 2004. Ruby managed Mac’s Bar and Cafe, on Atwood Ave., for 18 years, before joining University Hospital for 17 years, retiring in 1989.

Margaret A. “Margie” Fitzpatrick

Madison.com

Margaret A. “Margie” Fitzpatrick, age 38, passed away peacefully on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004. Margie graduated from the University of Wisconsin. As a student at the UW, she starred on a Big Ten championship volleyball team. She later was an assistant coach in volleyball at the UW.

Michael Robert Janda

Michael Robert Janda, age 50, died on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004. Michael worked in a molecular viralogy lab at the University of Wisconsin.

Carl Anthony Silvestri

Madison.com

Carl Anthony Silvestri, age 61, entered into the fullness of eternal life on Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004. Carl graduated from UW-Madison in 1965, and was a member of the famed 1963 Rose Bowl team.

Hazel M. Knudson (WSJ)

Hazel M. Knudson, age 103, passed away on Monday, Nov. 22, 2004. She performed administrative duties in offices at the University of Wisconsin Physical Plant

LeRoy “Whitey” Holm

LeRoy “Whitey” Holm passed away the morning of Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. He earned a Ph.D. from the University in Madison in botany and biochemistry and took a post in the School of Agriculture as an instructor and researcher in horticulture and botany.

Virginia M. Zuehlke

Madison.com

Zuehlke, age 87, passed away on Wednesday Nov. 10, 2004. She worked for many years as a secretary to the dean of engineering at the University of Wisconsin.

Ova Beetem Combs

Madison.com

Beetem Combs, professor of horticulture, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, UW-Madison, died on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004.

Fran Webb

Madison.com

Fran Webb, age 73, died peacefully on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004, after having battled a variety of illnesses for a number of years. Fran was a UW-Madison alumnus with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, who worked for 35 years as a researcher in the molecular biology laboratory.

Sharon A. Meinholz

Madison.com

Sharon Meinholz, age 53, died suddenly after a heart attack on Monday, Nov. 8, 2004. Since 1978, Sharon worked for the University of Wisconsin, first in the agriculture college and the medical school physiology department, then in 1983, she joined the UW department of geology and geophysics.

Mary Alison Thompson

Wisconsin State Journal

Mary Alison Thompson, age 82, passed away Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004, at Four Winds Lodge, Verona. She retired from the University of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.

Herman August John Kuhn

Madison.com

Herman Kuhn, age 74, died Friday, Nov. 5, 2004, at his home in Mount Horeb. Herman worked for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and retired from the UW-Madison as a professor emeritus.

Helen M. Billings

Madison.com

Helen M. Billings, age 104, of Madison, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 6. Helen worked at UW-Madison, as a desk attendant for the residence halls, retiring in 1973.

Menn loved aviation, UW Badgers football

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Driven by success and energized by his love of aviation, John B. Menn seldom missed Wisconsin Badgers home football games, often flying his twin-engine Cessna airplane from his Florida home to Madison in time for a kickoff. The University of Wisconsin-Madison was a defining time in his life, and he had a lifelong relationship with the school, his son said.

Maude Porter Shoemaker

Madison.com

Shoemaker was extremely interested in UW-Madison and through the University Foundation endowed chairs in chemical engineering and economics at UW-Madison.

Ronald Daggett

Madison.com

Daggett was a retired professor of mechanical engineering at UW-Madison, where he originated the first engineering plastics course taught in the world.

John B. Menn

Madison.com

Menn was a lifetime member of the Mendota Gridiron Club, a member of the UW Athletic Badger Fund, a significant donor to the football program and a major contributor to the new University of Wisconsin Boat House for men and women’s rowing teams.

Alberta Timmas Gableman

Madison.com

When the University of Wisconsin Allen Centennial Gardens were being planned in the mid-1980s Gabelman was asked to assume the responsibility for planning, planting and maintaining the rock gardens in the Allen Centennial Gardens, a responsibility they carried out with little additional help from 1985 until 1995.

Obituaries | Frances Wilson Hurst

Madison.com

Hurst served as assistant to the vice chancellor for student affairs at UW-Madison, where she was instrumental in starting the Drug Information Center. In 1941 she married James Willard Hurst, who served as Vilas Professor of Law at UW-Madison, and who predeceased her in 1997.

UW instructor dies after hit-and-run accident

Badger Herald

A University of Wisconsin faculty member died Tuesday after a hit-and-run accident on the Madison east side.

UW pianist and instructor John Gesinski, 63, was leaving the Sentry grocery store on Cottage Grove Road when he was hit on the crosswalk in the parking lot, according to a Madison Police Department press release.

David Woodward, Scholar on Mapmaking, Dies at 61

New York Times

David A. Woodward, a British-born geographer, editor and historian of mapmaking who helped create an encyclopedic series of books re-examining the place of mapmaking in world history, died last Wednesday at his home in Madison, Wis., where he taught at the University of Wisconsin for two decades. He was 61.