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Residence Halls
— Josephine Lenfestey Hall
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Josephine Lenfestey Hall was built in 1985 as part of Phase I of UW-Green Bay housing. This building was one of the first residence
halls ever built in the Residence Life complex.
About the woman: Josephine Buchanan Lenfestey is a life-long resident of Northeast Wisconsin whose leadership and
philanthropy have extended her influence and caring throughout and beyond Wisconsin. She was born on February 21,
1908, in Appleton, Wisconsin, and was educated in Appleton Public Schools, graduating as the valedictorian of her high
school class. She attended college at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, earning her bacclaureate in 1931, with a major
in history and minor in drama, and at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, where she did post-graduate work in the field
of speech re-education.
Following professional work as a speech re-education teacher at Horace Mann High School in Gary, Indiana, she returned to
Wisconsin and in 1937 married businessman Frederick J. (Ted) Lenfestey of De Pere. Their 48 years of married life focused
on family and an array of community activities locally, and later in Delray Beach, Florida, where they wintered.
Mrs. Lenfestey's interest in civic causes, the performing arts, gardening and historic preservation are reflected in the
service activities to which she has devoted her life. Mrs. Lenfestey was president of the area League of Women Voters
and a member of the state LWV Board of Directors. She served on the boards of the De Pere and State historical societies
and worked with other community leaders to assemble the area's historically important buildings in the setting that became
Heritage Hill State Park. Childhood lessons in elocution set the stage for a lifelong interest in drama. She pursued this
with college productions, play readings, service on the Community Theater Board, costume shows, play reviews and philanthropic
support of the arts. She is well known for her work with the Garden Club des Peres and the gardens she designed at her homes
in De Pere and on the bay shore, and at Pilgrim Congregational Church.
Mrs. Lenfestey is well known at UW-Green Bay as a member of the Founders Association and donor to the University's first
capital campaign. She and her husband are each recognized with a residence hall bearing their names. Dressing rooms of
the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts are also named in her honor, as is the auditorium of the community playhouse
in Delray Beach, Florida.
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