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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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Reprinted from: Green Bay Press-Gazette June 7, 2007 Editorial: Weidner's legacy endures at UWGB
In this moment of reflection, we find ourselves even more appreciative of the accomplishments of former University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Chancellor Edward Weidner, who died early Wednesday.
Weidner, who liked to say that he was UWGB's first employee, did more than oversee creation of a modern college campus, he helped steer this community into a more robust place to live.
Turn back the calendar 41 years when he received the fateful call from the president of the University of Wisconsin System with an offer to become chancellor of a nonexistent university.
Weidner was already a distinguished academician, serving on the faculty of the University of Kentucky. Green Bay was a mill town known for two things: the Green Bay Packers and toilet paper.
"The community was in the middle of an effort to make a major shift in image from a sports and mill town to a more complete community. Community leaders were placing renewed emphasis on education and cultural affairs," Weidner wrote in 2004.
Weidner guided UWGB for 20 years from 1966 to 1986. Out of a cornfield, golf course and ramshackle Bay Shore cottages, he sculpted a world-class campus that has grown to more than 5,400 full-time students, with plans to grow to about 7,500 full-time students.
It's fair to say that today's UWGB campus is a living reflection of Weidner's passions — education, theater and the environment. He was a devoted birder and his passion is reflected in the "green" emphasis of UWGB's curriculum and campus.
Many residents know Weidner as the namesake for the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts, where so many have enjoyed musical and dramatic performances in the stately hall on the UWGB campus. It's equally important to emphasize that the project, which he spearheaded, actually took place after he had retired as chancellor.
Of course, the best testament to Weidner's legacy is the students who attended UWGB and have gone on to take their own place in the community. One of those students was Susan Pankratz of De Pere, who studied psychology and business at UWGB, and contacted the Press-Gazette shortly after learning that Weidner had died.
"Only knowing him as 'Fast Eddie' (an affectionate student nickname), it was easy to spot his gentle, peaceful and unassuming nature," she wrote. "He modeled hope, strength, courage and most all, quiet confidence. Edward Weidner was a visionary who walked this earth at the perfect time in history."
Modesty was another of Weidner's traits. In fact, in 2004 when he reviewed his legacy he acknowledged with some satisfaction that his university was so well accepted that it was taken for granted.
Maybe it is a compliment to be so successful that in time our accomplishments are taken for granted.
But it's also important to reflect on the people who shaped this community for the better. And that was definitely Ed Weidner.
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