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INSIDE ARCHIVE


Marketing and
University Communication
UW-Green Bay, CL 815
2420 Nicolet Drive
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
(920) 465-2214

E-mail: matzken@uwgb.edu

Rev. May 13, 2008

 

Setting the bar high:
Wisconsin judges prepped for bench at UW-Green Bay

Three of Wisconsin’s circuit court judges are UW-Green Bay alumni. Interviews with each revealed important similarities. Among them, problem solving and helping others are both passions and strengths.

Judge Patrick Madden '71, modernization processes, earned his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin and has served on the Iron County bench for 22 years.
Madden also assists with cases in Langlade, Oneida, Price and Marathon counties. He is remembered on campus for his days as the crusading first editor of the Fourth Estate student newspaper, and his respectful disagreements with founding Chancellor Edward Weidner (who later became a mentor, friend and Madden's “hero”). 
Humbling career: “Being a judge is humbling. I am just a person trained to help others solve problems. Too often we use the judicial hammer and hit the problem. If we can't involve the person in the solution we are creating sausage, grinding people up and wrapping them in a case.”
No stoplights: “Iron County has 6,000 people and no stoplights, and I love it. I ride a circuit of more than 10,000 miles per year, though, with great people to work with and a huge diversity of cases.”
Proudest moments: “Adoptions. A four-year-old girl made me an adoption cupcake with lots of love and lots of frosting. A sweet girl named Lilly sent me a picture from her adoption. If I get stuck on a problem I ask myself, what would make Lilly proud?”
’GB Proud: “I was in the social change program and educated to be a problem- solver. Law is the best mechanism for helping people over life’s rough spots, even if it means sending someone to prison because they are a danger. Chancellor Weidner, Dr. Don Harden, and Ija Kornor were my mentors. I could not imagine better role models.”

Judge William Hanrahan '82   |   Judge Nancy Krueger '75


Click here to download a PDF file of the entire May 2008 issue of Inside magazine.