9° FFeatured Alumni
bell hooks
Feminist fervor She rises at 4 or 5 a.m., prays and meditates, and then tries to read a nonfiction book each day. It’s part of an almost athletic preparation as an intellectual and author who... Read more »
Charles Robb
U.S. Senator In 1961, before anti-Vietnam War fervor seared Madison, Charles Robb BA 1961 was often seen walking down Langdon Street in his ROTC drill uniform on his way to his Chi Phi fraternity. He... Read more »
David Obey
Congressman Paying his college bills with money earned as a busboy at Rennebohm’s Drug Store on State Street and by installing tile for his landlord, David Obey BS1960, MA1968 never envisioned a political career. Then... Read more »
Doris Meissner
The Perfect Public Servant Fred and Bertha Borst were German immigrants to America. Fred arrived via Ellis Island in the 1920s, and told of his heartache when he lost his naturalization papers in a fire.... Read more »
Errol Morris
‘History is a crime scene’ With a ninth-grade IQ measured at 87 and habit of getting thrown out of graduate schools, Errol Morris BA1969 never claimed to be an academic. Still, he became an Oscar-winning... Read more »
Herb Kohl
A Humble Man with a Big Impact The titles on Herb Kohl BS1956’s resume — ex-U.S. senator, successful businessman, former Milwaukee Bucks owner, and philanthropist — don’t seem to square with the quiet man who... Read more »
Iajuddin Ahmed
Ahmed’s Turbulent Political Reign Iajuddin Ahmed MS1958, PhD1962 led a Bangladeshi government mired in painful political tension, turmoil, and collapse. His rise to the presidency of the South Asian nation of 140 million people came... Read more »
Jim Doyle
JFK Visit a Game Changer As 14-year-old Jim Doyle BA1967 listened to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy from the balcony of the Wisconsin Union Theater in 1960, a Secret Service agent asked him to step... Read more »
John Muir
Nature’s Evangelist Beneath a black locust tree on the brow of Bascom Hill, near North Hall, UW student Milton Griswold BA1863, MA1866 gave a classmate an impromptu botany lesson on a spring day in 1863.... Read more »
Kathryn Clarenbach
Wisconsin’s Foremost Feminist Betty Friedan. Gloria Steinem. Bella Abzug. Their names are top of mind in the history of the modern women’s movement. But what about Kathryn Frederick Clarenbach BA1941, MA1942, PhD1946? She lived her... Read more »
Lawrence Eagleburger
Diplomat’s Skill Changed the World One day while Lawrence Eagleburger BS1952, MS1957 was working on a master’s degree in political science, he spied a poster on a campus bulletin board promoting the Foreign Service Examination.... Read more »
Lee Dreyfus
30 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality As the drafty bus rumbled out of Badger Village, the university’s married-veterans’ housing complex at the Badger Ordnance Works near Baraboo, Lee Dreyfus Sr. BA1949, MA1952, PhD1958 was focused... Read more »
Lynne Cheney
An Outspoken Voice, a Respected Author Near the woods that overlook Lake Mendota, Lynne Cheney PhD1970 and her husband lived in an unassuming Eagle Heights apartment in the late 1960s while she studied 19th-century British... Read more »
Pat Lucey
Governor, Ambassador Patrick Lucey BA1946 went home to Ferryville, Wisconsin, one weekend during his final semester of college to discover that he’d been elected justice of the peace. A friend had organized a write-in campaign,... Read more »
Robert La Follette
The fire of “Fighting Bob” One of the most fiery and influential American politicians of the 20th century began as a struggling UW student well known for his campus pranks. Robert La Follette BS1879, LLD1901,... Read more »
Russ Feingold
Feingold: “Destined to be a Badger” Russ Feingold BA1975’s father, Leon BA1935, LLB1937, shaken by anti-Vietnam War violence in Madison – especially the Sterling Hall bombing that claimed a researcher’s life — urged his son... Read more »
Sergio Fajardo
A New Medellín The city of used to be the scarred face that Colombia showed to the world. The streets of this cocaine capital were pockmarked by car bombs, bloodied by drug violence; its people... Read more »
Shirley Abrahamson
High Court Pioneer Passes Test of Time The day when Shirley Abrahamson DJS1962 became the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s longest-serving justice in 2013, folks celebrated with pastries and good humor. “It’s just living. That’s good, right?”... Read more »
Tammy Baldwin
U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Breaking barriers is stock-in-trade for Tammy Baldwin JD1989; it’s part of her makeup, her identity, and her legacy. One of the first hurdles Baldwin needed to overcome was when the 24-year-old... Read more »
Tom Loftus
Lessons of State Politics Go Global The phone rang in Tom Loftus MA1972’s office at the U.S. Embassy in Norway, and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela was on the line. Mandela, who received the 1993 Nobel... Read more »
Tommy Thompson
Tommy Thompson BS1963, JD1966 helped pay undergraduate and law school tuition as a bouncer, bartender, and manager at the Varsity Bar on State Street in the 1960s. He joked with “Var Bar” patrons, greeting them... Read more »
Yeshey Zimba
Shaping Bhutan’s Future Yeshey Zimba BA1975, MA1976 tells a self-deprecating story about his struggles to pass a public-policy class during his days at UW–Madison in the mid-1970s. While studying for a master’s degree in economics,... Read more »