Category: Obituaries

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.

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

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 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.

Norman R. Gjerde, age 92, died on Monday, Nov. 22, 2004. He retired from the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy in 1978.

Dr. Arthur H. Robinson, a geographer who improved on the venerable Mercator projection for drawing the round Earth on a flat map, died on Oct. 10 in Madison, Wis. He was 89.

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.

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

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 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.

John W. Rundle, age 87, worked at the Veterans Hospital and the UW Biotron.

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 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, 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.

He was employed by the UW-Madison for 28 years, retiring in 1994

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Balish was a retired microbiologist/ pharmacist with the University of Wisconsin and Dean Clinics

Heimlich worked at at the UW Natatorium and the University Book Store in Hilldale Mall.

Swenson worked at the UW-Madison Physics Research Instrument Department for 35 years, retiring as shop supervisor.

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.

McKenna worked at the University of Wisconsin, Sellery Hall, as a housekeeper until her retirement.

John Gesinski, beloved accompanist in the UW-Madison dance program, died early Wednesday morning from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run incident on Madison’s east side.

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 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.

MADISON, Wis. – Herbert Hill, who served as the NAACP’s labor secretary from 1953 to 1977 and later helped establish the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s black studies department, has died.

Hill died Sunday at a Madison hospice at the age of 80.

Farr moved to Madison, Wis., to become manager of a dormitory at the University of Wisconsin.