Mary: Former teacher and guidance counselor
UW Major: Elementary Education
Ted: Retired Founder and Portfolio Manager, Fiduciary Management, Inc.
UW Major: Finance, Investment, and Banking
Ted and Mary Kellner have spent decades helping strengthen the UW–Madison community, expanding academic and athletic programs, championing educators and students, and investing in scholarships and campus initiatives. Some impact is easier to see — like names on a building or faculty endowments — but it all creates a ripple effect.
Ted Kellner ’69 grew up going to Badger football games at Camp Randall with his father. “There was never a doubt in my mind that I was going to go to Madison,” he says.
For Mary Tucker Kellner ’68, leaving her hometown of Huntington, New York, for the UW was a leap into the unknown — her first time on a plane, and her first time seeing campus in person.
The pair met while living in Sellery Hall, and a friend introduced them in the cafeteria. Ted called Mary for a date a few days later, and they’ve been together ever since.
“The UW changed my life in so many ways,” Mary says. In addition to studying, she joined a sorority and made the cheerleading squad, forming lasting friendships. “The football team wasn’t great, but I had a ball cheerleading.”
Though Ted admits his first semester was overwhelming, he found his footing by spring. The lifelong sports fan and future member of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame walked on to the men’s basketball team. The Brittingham Viking scholarship program took him to Oslo and Copenhagen and introduced him to a global network. “It opened my eyes to the world,” he says. “That was the first time I started thinking about the kind of legacy I wanted to leave.”
As a business major, Ted found formative mentors in faculty like Frank Graner PhD’48 and James Graaskamp PhD’65, who helped spark his interest in finance and real estate. After earning his bachelor of business administration degree, he worked at two firms led by UW alumni and mentors before launching Fiduciary Management, Inc., which grew into one of the Midwest’s leading investment firms.
Over the years, Ted mentored more than 180 student-athletes through summer internships offering experience in finance and operations. “Sports teaches you how to compete, how to work as a team, how to get back in the game when you get knocked down,” he says. “Those lessons stick with you for life.” That’s a mindset he learned not just as a student-athlete, but from his father, Jack Kellner ’41 — a Big Ten champion, all-American in track and field, and fellow UW Athletic Hall of Famer.
Like Ted, Mary was greatly influenced by her father. In 1984, she and Ted created the Kelben Foundation, named for her dad, Ben Tucker, “the kindest man I’ve ever known.” The foundation’s first gift was a single $500 scholarship to a Milwaukee student, and today it offers hundreds of scholarships each year. “Some of these kids have overcome incredible obstacles,” Mary says. “So many are first-generation college students, and they work so hard. It’s humbling.”
Mary, who earned her degree from the UW School of Education and began her career as a teacher and guidance counselor, saw firsthand the need to advocate for and invest in students — especially those in under-resourced schools — as well as the educators who guide and care for them. In 2024, the Kellners made a $7 million gift to expand the newly renamed Mary T. Kellner Teacher Education Center. The funding supports the UW’s groundbreaking Teacher Pledge — which covers tuition and living expenses for students who commit to teaching in Wisconsin — as well as mentoring and professional development for early-career educators.
Together, the Kellners have helped transform the UW landscape. They were key leaders in the UW’s record-setting All Ways Forward campaign, with Ted chairing the UW Foundation board. Their own $25 million gift supported scholarships, athletics, and the School of Education. They helped fund Kellner Hall, the five-story facility housing athletic offices and student-athlete services. They also invested in the Fluno Center and Wisconsin School of Business programs, the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education, and several other initiatives that strengthen student success and campus life.
They’ve stayed closely connected to the Badger community they built decades ago — including a group of Ted’s Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers, whose informal investment club evolved into decades-long friendships and reunion weekends.
The Kellners are a reminder that one act of support can echo for generations. “You toss a stone in the water, and the ripples keep going,” Ted says. “That’s what we hope we’ve done.”
“UW–Madison gave me the chance to build a life I love — and we want others to have that chance, too,” Mary says. “I’m a Badger for life.”
