The passing of
Dr. Edward Weidner
1921 - 2007
Dr.
Edward W. Weidner, father, husband, friend and world-renowned
educator whose crowning achievement — beyond
his family — was founding of the University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay, passed away peacefully Wednesday
morning (June 6, 2007) following a long illness.
He was 85.
Dr. Weidner was appointed chancellor of UW-Green
Bay in October 1966. Hired to oversee the creation
of a new four-year campus in Northeast Wisconsin,
he was the institution’s first employee and
driving force. He was the architect who oversaw development
of the bayshore campus and its groundbreaking curriculum,
and he assembled a national-caliber faculty and staff.
He would serve 20 years as chancellor, which ranks
among the longest tenures in UW System history.
A citation quoting the essayist and poet Ralph Waldo
Emerson — “An institution is the lengthened
shadow of one man” — was cited when the
UW System Board of Regents honored Dr. Weidner with
chancellor emeritus status after he stepped down
in 1986. Colleagues and contemporaries agreed those
words were never more fittingly applied than to Edward
W. Weidner and the University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay.
Green Bay’s local newspaper, just hours after
his passing, paid tribute to his life’s work
by describing him as “one of the leading figures
in Green Bay in the 20th century.”
Edward W. Weidner was born July 7, 1921, in Minneapolis,
the second of two children of Lillian and Peter Weidner.
He attended public schools and graduated from Roosevelt
High School in Minneapolis in 1939.
He married the former Jean Blomquist on March 23,
1944. They would have four children: Nancy, Gary,
Karen and Bill. Jean Weidner —UW-Green Bay’s
first “First Lady” and a well-known social
worker and psychotherapist in her own right —preceded
him in death, on April 15, 1997. Ed remarried to
Marjorie Conway Fermanich; the couple marked their
ninth wedding anniversary on Wednesday, the day of
his passing.
In later years, the Weidners enjoyed entertaining
visitors at their Shore Acres home. They also traveled
widely, visiting children and grandchildren, and
often followed UW-Green Bay athletic teams for important
NCAA games. Ed was also an avid birder who continued
to add species to his “life’s list”
through his continuing travels.
His children enjoyed exposure to world cultures during
their early years. Ed and Jean followed his education
and public-service career to postings around the
globe throughout the 1950s and ‘60s.
Edward W. Weidner began his distinguished academic
career as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University
of Minnesota, where he also completed the M.A., and
Ph.D. in political science, in 1946. He first pursued
his interest in public administration in graduate
school, when he worked as a research associate for
the National Municipal League. He also did graduate
work at the University of Wisconsin.
In the two decades before he was called to Green
Bay, he had already made important contributions
to higher education in America and abroad as political
scientist, university professor, university administrator,
scholar and authority on international affairs.
As an assistant professor at Minnesota, Dr. Weidner
was assistant director of research in intergovernmental
relations. He moved on to a one-year faculty post
at UCLA and then to Michigan State. There, over a
period of 12 years beginning in 1950, he added activities
in technical assistance, educational exchange, international
development and administration, serving as director
of the Governmental Research Bureau, chairman of
the Department of Political Science, and director
of the Institute of Research on Overseas Programs.
His work brought him and his family to countries
including Vietnam, where he was consultant on assistance
needs to the Foreign Operations Administration, and
Pakistan, consulting on rural development academies
for the Ford Foundation.
After a year as a Visiting Senior Scholar at the
East-West Center of the University of Hawaii, Weidner
was named vice chancellor of the Center’s Institute
of Advanced Projects, a post he held for six years.
He was director of the Center for Development Change
at the University of Kentucky before accepting appointment
from then-UW President Fred Harvey Harrington to
head the new campus in Wisconsin.
At that time, Dr. Weidner had written or collaborated
in the writing of at least eight books, had presented
hundreds of papers to professional meetings, and
served as an officer or on committees of dozens of
scholarly organizations. His books included The
World Role of Universities (McGraw-Hill, 1962), Technical Assistance in Public Administration Overseas (Public Administration Service, 1964), and Development
Administration in Asia (Duke University Press,
1970).
It was at UW-Green Bay however, that Chancellor Weidner
would earn national and even international attention.
The pioneering curriculum and “Man and his
Environment” theme grabbed headlines –
Newsweek, Harper’s magazine and others showered
praise on what they described as America’s
first eco-university —but there were other,
even more significant ways UWGB challenged the higher
education orthodoxy of the day.
By integrating disciplines into interdisciplinary
“concentrations,” by offering liberal
education seminars and the January special-studies
period, by emphasizing problem-solving and “communiversity,”
the University that Dr. Weidner helped build would
re-shape the status quo. For example, UWGB was among
the first universities of its day to offer a broadly
defined program in Environmental Sciences; once revolutionary,
such interdisciplinary programs can be found nationwide,
today.
As a result, Dr. Weidner was invited to write and
speak widely on higher education in general, and
UW-Green Bay in particular. He prepared papers on
problem-oriented education and UWGB for the International
Year Book of Education; for the American Council
on Education journal, the Educational Record; for
the International Journal of Environmental Sciences;
for the national conference of the American Association
for Higher Education; for three international meetings
of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development in France and Denmark; for the inauguration
of new universities in Sweden and South Africa; and
for conferences in Germany, South Africa, Lebanon,
Japan, Yugoslavia, and Spain. He was honored by the
King of Sweden for his contributions to higher education
in that country.
On the national scene, Weidner served during his
tenure as chancellor as secretary and board member
of the American Council on Education as well as on
the Association of American Colleges board and the
AAC project policy board, working to create institutional
change by developing and implementing alternative
curriculum models for undergraduate liberal education.
He also took his experience and expertise to the
American Association of State Colleges and Universities
as a member of that body’s committee on alternatives
and innovation. For a six-year period beginning in
1974, Weidner served as American representative on
the governing council of United Nations University,
a newly founded world institution of postgraduate
study and research.
Student life was another priority during Dr. Weidner’s
tenure at UWGB. Despite state budget cuts, he was
successful in winning state support for a student
union and sports center, and a successful capital
campaign in the 1980s enabled construction of modern
campus residence halls without public funds.
He was a champion of bringing NCAA Division I athletic
competition to Green Bay, and helped rally the community
to achieve that goal. The school’s first NCAA
tournament bid, in 1983 in men’s soccer, and
the hiring of Dick Bennett to lead the ascent of
the men’s basketball program at the major-college
level, were accomplished under Chancellor Weidner’s
watch. Previously, the school had achieved much success
in soccer and basketball at the NAIA and Division
II levels. Chancellor Weidner had identified successful
sports programs as a campus goal upon his arrival
in the late 1960s; he often credited legendary Packers
Coach Vince Lombardi as a key community adviser and
the man who persuaded him that soccer, not football,
should be the primary fall sport because of the expense
involved, likelihood for an immediate national profile,
and the risk of being overshadowed by the city’s
NFL team.
During his time as chancellor, Dr. Weidner also gave
generously of time and effort to other local projects:
as a member of the board of directors of the Heritage
Hill Foundation and co-chairman of its recent capital
campaign; on the executive board of the Bay-Lakes
Council, Boy Scouts of America, which honored him
in 1986 with its Distinguished Eagle Award.
Dr. Weidner stayed active with UW-Green Bay in the
years since his retirement as chancellor. He took
particular interest, and leading roles, in continuing
development of the Cofrin Arboretum, scholarship
assistance for students, Phoenix Athletics, and development
of the campus/community performing arts center that
was later named in his honor.
He served as project director for the performing
arts center following announcement of a unique public-private
partnership launched by a $5 million challenge gift
from his friends, Dr. David and Mary Ann Cofrin,
in 1987. Groundbreaking took place in 1991, and at
the Cofrins’ suggestion the center was dedicated
as the Edward W. Weidner Center for the Performing
Arts upon its opening in 1993. A subsequent family
honor was announced in 2005 when the center’s
Jean Weidner Theatre was named for his late wife,
herself also a fan of, and advocate for, the theatre
program.
Despite a serious heart attack suffered during a
1997 trip to New York state, Dr. Weidner recovered
to resume an active schedule. He remained one of
the University’s biggest boosters and enthusiastic
advocates, a fixture at campus theatre, sporting
and student events. His most recent campus functions
were a meet-and-greet session with students at last
month’s scholarship reception — he and
his family helped fund several scholarship endowments
at UW-Green Bay — as well as the annual Founders
Association community reception, and the most recent
induction ceremony for the Phoenix Hall of Fame.
When asked why he chose to remain in Green Bay following
his retirement, having lived many other places around
the world, he mentioned friends and the importance
of having a strong public university in the community
– “which we have here in Green Bay.”
Survivors include his wife, Marge; children and spouses,
Dr. Nancy Weidner Larson and Dean Brandt, Minneapolis;
daughter-in-law Ellen Weidner, Green Bay; Dr. Karen
Weidner and Dr. Kurtis Klotzbuecher, Woodbury, Minn.;
William and Alison Weidner, Ham Lake, Minn.; six
grandchildren, Christopher, Will, Peter, Mark, James,
Daniel; and his brother, Charles R. Weidner, Hawaii.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Jean,
and a son, Gary.
The Celebration of the Life of Edward W. Weidner
will take place Saturday, June 9th at the Weidner
Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The family will
welcome guests from 3 to 6 p.m. and the program will
begin at 6 p.m. A reception will follow the program
in the center’s Grand Foyer.
Blaney Funeral Home is assisting the family. Condolences
and personal messages to the family may be directed
to them online at www.blaneyfuneralhome.com. A UW-Green
Bay website with tributes, photographs, speeches
and opportunities for alumni, friends and colleagues
to share public recollections is available at www.uwgb.edu/weidnertributes
A memorial fund is established at the University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay. In lieu of flowers, donations
may be directed to the Edward Weidner Fund.
Ed Weidner asked that the following quote be shared
upon his passing:
“…Grieve not, nor speak of me with
tears, but laugh and talk as if I were beside you…I
loved you so – ‘twas Heaven here with
you.”
—
Isla Paschal Richardson |
