Alumni Start Literacy Foundation
- Apr. 05, 2022
My wife, Jeanne, and I met in my sophomore year, married in my junior year, and graduated together in 1967 with two sons. Jeanne and I were the first of three generations to be able to read before we went to school, and literacy has been a boon to all three generations. Being aware that according to a national study 30 percent of all high school graduates in America cannot read above the third-grade level, and children in the lowest 40 percent economic level have no books at home, we decided to “pay it forward.” After giving $500 to the Fort Atkinson School District the first year, able to provide over 500 books to kids in summer school, we started a 501(c)3 foundation called Liberty Through Literacy and have partnered with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Now, almost 250 children in the 53538 zip code get a book mailed to them each month from birth to age 5. We also give books to kids in summer school because of reading limitations.
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Joel P. Spiess ’07, MS’11, was appointed chief enrollment operations officer and executive director of Student Financial Services at the University...
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von Briesen & Roper, s.c., announced that Thor C. Jeppson ’13, MS’19 has joined the firm’s Madison office.
von Briesen & Roper, s.c., announced that Matthew J. Van Keulen JD’11 has joined the firm’s Madison office. Van Keulen is a shareholder in the ...
This fall, seven lifelong friends, each proud Madisonians, celebrated our 60th birthdays with a cycling trip through Piedmont and the Italian Rivie...
Submitted by Robert Carson, Robertsdale, AL: Just a simple note of memories that may only be of interest to family members. I knew Pete when we were both captains in Danang, 1968. We were the two aides-de-camp to the commanding general of the 1st ...
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In 1990, Linnea Smith ’81, MD’84 founded the Amazon Medical Project, a 501(c)(3) serving Indigenous communities in Peru’s Amazon River Basin. A Wis...
Michael Anderson ’05, MS’09, PhD’11 and Jie Liu ’09, MS’11 celebrated 14 years of marriage in November 2025. They met in 2009 while working for different Wisconsin professors at CERN in the city of Meyrin, Switzerland. Michael was a research assis...
Joel P. Spiess ’07, MS’11, was appointed chief enrollment operations officer and executive director of Student Financial Services at the University...
Calvin Beyer ’86 was elected to the National Academy of Construction in the class of 2025. Calvin Beyer is the senior director of SAFE Workplaces for the national nonprofit SAFE Project (Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic). Beyer leads national ...
Josh Fudge ’98 was elected to the Fort Collins, Colorado, City Council on Tuesday, November 4, representing the third district. Josh received 63 pe...
von Briesen & Roper, s.c., announced that Thor C. Jeppson ’13, MS’19 has joined the firm’s Madison office.
von Briesen & Roper, s.c., announced that Matthew J. Van Keulen JD’11 has joined the firm’s Madison office. Van Keulen is a shareholder in the ...
This fall, seven lifelong friends, each proud Madisonians, celebrated our 60th birthdays with a cycling trip through Piedmont and the Italian Rivie...
Submitted by Robert Carson, Robertsdale, AL: Just a simple note of memories that may only be of interest to family members. I knew Pete when we were both captains in Danang, 1968. We were the two aides-de-camp to the commanding general of the 1st ...
David Wood Stewart MS’76, PhD’79 died on October 28, 2025, at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community, Asheville, NC. He was 95. A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, he was born on December 12, 1929, the son of S. Glenn and Esther Wood Stewart. In 19...
In 1990, Linnea Smith ’81, MD’84 founded the Amazon Medical Project, a 501(c)(3) serving Indigenous communities in Peru’s Amazon River Basin. A Wis...