With a $14.3 million gift, Jerry Frautschi will help build a world-class visitor and education center at an iconic UW–Madison landmark. Jeff Miller

The Lakeshore Nature Preserve has long held a special place in the hearts of Madison philanthropist Jerry Frautschi ’56 and his family. Now, with a $14.3 million gift, Frautschi will help build a world-class visitor and education center at this iconic UW–Madison landmark.

“My family has lived in Madison since the 1800s, and we feel a great sense of responsibility to give back to the city and community that we love,” Frautschi says. “I am pleased that I am able to carry on my family’s tradition of philanthropy and community service and that visitors will have a welcoming gathering place with improved access to the trails that line the lakeshore.”

The Lakeshore Nature Preserve Frautschi Center is planned for the area outside the stone wall at the Picnic Point entrance. This location does not disrupt habitat within the preserve and is designed to increase natural habitat and stormwater filtration.

“We are fortunate to have such beautiful natural spaces on campus for recreation, research, and education,” says UW–Madison chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin. “And we are exceptionally fortunate for Jerry and his family’s generosity and their commitment to creating this welcoming, accessible, and sustainable space for our students, employees, and visitors.”

The Frautschi family connection to the preserve began 36 years ago when Jerry and his brother, John, purchased what was known as Second Point along Lake Mendota’s shoreline. The property was in danger of being developed at the time, and the family was committed to preserving natural spaces. The brothers paid $1.5 million for the land and then gifted the property to their father for Christmas in 1988. The Frautschis renamed the land Frautschi Point and donated it to the University of Wisconsin.

Construction on the facility is slated to start in 2025, and the center is scheduled to open in 2026.

From top to bottom are: Song Kue, Eloise Gerry, Leo Butts, Marguerite Davis, Sister Mary Kenneth Keller, and Miyoshi Ikawa. Their work had key impacts on modern marvels such as computers, blood-thinner medications, and vitamins. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DANIELLE LAWRY. Marguerite Davis image courtesy National Archives, all other images courtesy UW Archives.

In subjects ranging from medicine to ecology, engineering to computer science, the University of Wisconsin’s top-ranked research program has made valuable innovations for the past 175 years. Just a few examples: Harry Steenbock 1916 revealed the benefits of vitamin D; Karl Paul Link 1922, MS1923, PhD1925 discovered the blood thinner warfarin, and James Thomson was a trailblazer in stem-cell research.

But what about some of the lesser-known UW scientists, often overlooked in their time, who made key discoveries? Science is a team effort, even if that isn’t always reflected in the history books. While the following scientists aren’t household names, the research they did and the training they received from UW–Madison helped advance their fields and improve the world.

Warfarin Warrior

Although most people haven’t heard of Miyoshi Ikawa MS’45, PhD’48, they probably have heard of warfarin, the medicine used as a blood thinner.

The story of warfarin, which was patented in 1947, began at the UW in 1933, when a farmer sought the help of biochemistry professor Karl Paul Link. The farmer’s cows, who were eating moldy sweet clover hay, began mysteriously dying from internal bleeding. The animals’ blood wasn’t clotting, so Link and his research team decided to find out why.

Once they discovered the chemical compound responsible for the cows’ thin blood, the researchers worked in the lab to create new variations of the substance, each with slight modifications to its chemical structure. Their goal was to maintain the compound’s blood-thinning effect.

Ikawa, a graduate student in the Link lab; fellow lab member Mark Stahmann PhD’41; and Link created analogue 42, the version that would become what we know today as warfarin. The researchers found the compound was useful as a rat poison. Later, they realized it could also be used as a drug to help people with blood-clotting disorders, a pivotal discovery that has saved countless lives.

Ikawa’s studies here, however, were linked to a darker part of our nation’s past. In the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, anti-Japanese sentiment was rampant in the United States. Ikawa was studying at the California Institute of Technology in 1942 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the West Coast a military zone and authorized the forced evacuation and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans. With the help of his CalTech graduate adviser, Ikawa was able to relocate to Madison and find a position in Link’s lab.

After finishing his graduate studies at the UW, he returned to the West Coast for postgraduate research at CalTech and UC–Berkeley and became a professor at the University of New Hampshire.

Computer Visionary

The first woman in the country to complete a doctorate in computer science was a UW–Madison grad — and a nun.

In 1932, at 18 years old, Mary Kenneth Keller PhD’65 entered the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Soon after taking her religious vows, Keller began a teaching career and, during summer break, pursued a math degree. She was teaching high school math on the west side of Chicago in the early 1960s when she began to realize the rising importance of computers as a tool in mathematical computation. Intent on learning more, she attended a summer program at Dartmouth College, where she and other high school teachers learned how to operate computers and write simple programs.

Later, when Keller was in her 50s and teaching math during summer school at Iowa’s Clarke College, the school’s president sent her to UW–Madison to pursue a PhD in computer science. In her dissertation, “Inductive Inference on Computer Generated Patterns,” Keller explored the ways computers could be used to mechanize tasks and solve problems.

After earning her doctorate, Keller established the computer science department at Clarke College and gave lectures on computer science at other institutions whenever she could.

She was an avid proponent for women seeking higher education and for working women in general, especially mothers. She was even known to encourage her college students to bring their children to class.

Grade-A Scientist

We know that vitamins exist today thanks in part to the dedication of Marguerite Davis ’26.

Davis, a Wisconsin native, grew up inspired by the women’s rights movement in the late 19th century. She also had an interest in science and began pursuing higher education at the UW before transferring to the University of California to complete her bachelor’s degree. Called back to Wisconsin to help look after her father’s house, Davis hoped to continue her work in science.

Enter: Elmer McCollum, a professor in the UW Department of Agricultural Chemistry. In the early 1900s, McCollum was attempting to create a mixture of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats that could replace the standard feed given to animals and optimize their diets. But the animals fed on McCollum’s experimental diet experienced stunted growth, sickness, and even blindness. Something was missing.

With Davis’s help, McCollum began tedious and time-consuming studies to uncover what that something was, helping to feed, care for, and take detailed observations of lab rats.

Some rats were fed a dairy-based fat while others were fed olive oil or lard. The rats fed oil or lard became sick and failed to grow properly, but those who consumed dairy fat continued to grow. Realizing there must be important compounds in the dairy fat, McCollum and Davis extracted those compounds and added them to the oil and lard.

Their hypothesis was confirmed when rats fed the fortified oil or lard were as healthy as those fed dairy fat. In 1913, McCollum and Davis identified the important compound as vitamin A. The two guessed that other foods must also hold these vital nutrients, launching subsequent experiments to pinpint these substances and their benefits.

Each year Davis worked in the lab, McCollum requested a salary for her, but it wasn’t until her sixth year that he finally received the funding. Davis continued to make vital contributions, changing the field of nutrition as we know it.

Trailblazing Pharmacist

Leo Butts 1920 was the first African American to graduate from the UW School of Pharmacy. Butts grew up in Madison, where he was active in civil rights in high school. He became the first African American to play for the UW varsity football team and enlisted in the Students’ Army Training Corps.

But arguably his most important accomplishment at the university was his groundbreaking senior thesis researching the status of African American pharmacists. Butts pieced it together despite limited documentation in the UW libraries. He reached out to prominent African American pharmacists and pharmaceutical organizations, collecting anecdotes and statistics on the number of existing African American pharmacists and drugstores.

In his thesis, he also demonstrated the benefits of increased cooperation between African American doctors and pharmacists: improvements in the health of Black communities and their sense of connection.

After graduating, Butts worked as a pharmacist in Gary, Indiana, but he lost his job during the Great Depression and worked for a time as a mail carrier. Eventually, he returned to his chosen profession, operating a pharmacy until he passed away in 1956. He provided both care and a gathering place for his community.

Unfortunately, the sparse information on African American pharmacists persisted into the 1980s, when James Buchanan ’43, the School of Pharmacy’s second known African American graduate, found himself wondering if he had been the first.

She Saved Trees before It Was Cool

The nation’s first woman microscopist was a UW graduate and professor. Eloise Gerry PhD1921 moved to Madison in 1910 to join the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s then-new Forest Products Laboratory. The lab conducted innovative wood and fiber-use research that contributed to the sustainability of forests. Gerry also continued her education, studying botany and plant pathology. Later, she became a professor at the UW.

In 1916, she started her own research program to help conserve pine trees in the American South. Traveling around the region to collect data, she showed that the lumber industry was cutting down trees at an unsustainable rate. Her research helped to preserve local ecosystems and stabilize the pine-related turpentine industry by enabling more productive and longer-lived trees.

Gerry was proud to be a woman in her field. When she was hired at the Forest Products Laboratory, she recalled that “there wasn’t any man willing to come and do the work.” After earning her doctorate, she was sure to sign her full name, “Dr. Eloise Gerry,” rather than just her first initial and last name so that people would know she was a woman.

She made a point of being active in numerous professional associations, most notably serving as the president of Graduate Women in Science, a global organization that still works to inspire and support women in science. The organization established a fellowship in Gerry’s name that continues to offer research funding to selected fellows.

Education Advocate

Song Kue ’82 was UW–Madison’s first Hmong graduate. His electrical engineering degree made him a highly sought-after employee, and he was recruited by the electronics company E-Systems, where he designed technologies that improved the ability of fighter jets to detect military movement.

Kue and his wife, See, came to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, as Vietnam War refugees in 1975. He spoke some English and was encouraged to pursue higher education at UW–Green Bay’s Sheboygan campus. Kue had experienced limited access to communications while living in Laos, so he decided to apply his interest in computers and mathematics to electrical engineering with hopes of improving communication technology.

He soon transferred to UW–Madison to finish his bachelor’s degree. The Hmong community in Madison was small at that time, and his college career at a primarily white institution didn’t come without challenges. But as an avid soccer player, he was a strong supporter of the university’s soccer team and was proud to be a Badger.

Math was an equalizer to Kue. He saw higher education as a path to success and instilled that belief in his children and among the growing Hmong community in Madison, whom he often tutored in math. He encouraged them to pursue higher education, and several of his children, numerous nieces and nephews, and some of his grandchildren have since attended college, almost all of them at UW–Madison. •

The expansion doubles the size of the small-animal hospital and triples the area devoted to infectious disease research. School of Veterinary Medicine

The UW School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) has built a new three-story space — which connects to the existing small-animal clinic — to meet a growing demand for more student learning spaces and veterinary patient care.

SVM was scheduled to open the first two floors of the $174 million expansion in June, doubling the size of the small-animal hospital and tripling the area devoted to infectious disease research. The school is home to 75 percent of the vital infectious-disease research conducted on campus, and it provides quality care for nearly 30,000 veterinary patients per year.

The expansion was made possible by a wide community of benefactors. The project received $90 million from the state, with the remaining support contributed by generous donors such as Debbie Cervenka, a member of the SVM board of visitors. “To be involved and have the ability to provide financial support for this expansion has been a tremendous honor,” says Cervenka. Other contributors include current and former teaching hospital clients, alumni, and pet lovers.

The updated space will greatly expand SVM’s ability to meet the increasing demand for research and care that benefits animals as well as humans. Some of the improvements include research and diagnostic equipment, such as CT, MRI, and PET-CT machines; room for more student learning spaces; an oncology center; and a cardiology suite.

The new facility will house biosafety level 3 lab spaces, which are designed for easy decontamination of potential airborne toxins. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 75 percent of the rising infectious pathogens that affect humans originate in animals, and scientists at the school are on the front lines of investigating infectious diseases such as West Nile encephalitis, avian influenza, and COVID-19.

The 150,000-square-foot construction will also offer student collaboration spaces, acupuncture, internal medicine, general surgery, and an ultrasound suite. The MRI machine is capable of accommodating large and small animals alike.

The third floor of the new building will likely be completed in early 2025, along with an enclosed large-animal arena, remodeled isolation stalls for bovine and equine patients, and renovations to the existing building.

“I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this incredible school,” says Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin. “The discoveries and innovations, the graduates who will meet the state’s urgent need for veterinarians, and the compassionate care that will change the lives of our animal patients as well as the lives of the humans who love them.”

A photo taken circa 1973, when the McDonald’s was five years old. Today, it’s a post office. Wisconsin Historical Society

For almost four decades, the corner of State and Lake was home to a beloved institution where UW students could get a quick bite. No, not the lunch counter at Rennebohm Drug Store, though that had its fans. Across the street and one door down, at 441 N. Lake, stood McDonald’s, offering those in need a quick infusion of all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, and sesame-seed buns.

This McDonald’s franchise appeared on the campus scene in 1968, the same year that the Big Mac was added to the menu at all of the chain’s restaurants. Ray Kroc himself — the man who turned, ahem, Scottish cuisine into an American phenomenon — made an appearance at the opening of the company’s 1,031st outlet. Between then and 2006, the spot served the campus community with uncounted tons of beef, one quarter pound at a time, as well as McMuffins, McNuggets, and the famed french fries that were invented by Edwin Traisman, onetime administrator of the UW Food Research Institute.

By the 21st century, the Lake Street McDonald’s was showing its age, and its owners felt it was too expensive to renovate. They sold the site to the U.S. Postal Service, which has operated a post office there ever since.

The departure provoked mixed emotions. Then-alder Austin King ’03 told the Badger Herald that he wouldn’t shed any tears over the loss of McDonald’s. But Charlie Burns ’09 responded that losing it was upsetting. “That McDonald’s used to be my pre-football game meeting place … to get breakfast,” he said. The McD’s on Regent Street was too far away.

The post office still stands at 441 N. Lake, but the area around it is in flux. The city closed the Lake Street Campus Garage in December 2023, aiming to turn the lot into apartments, parking, retail space, and a bus station. The nearest McFlurry is still a mile away — 21 minutes by foot or seven minutes to the drive-thru.

WFAA staffer Briana Morganroth ’17 served ice cream during last summer’s state tour. The complimentary treat is a popular perk of the 175th festivities on the road. Chris Flink

What could be better on a warm summer day than a chance to mingle with fellow Badgers and enjoy free family activities?

In a continuing celebration of UW–Madison’s 175th anniversary and its contributions to communities throughout Wisconsin, the university’s state tour will include visits to several more cities this summer.

First up is a May 30 stop in the Fox Valley (Appleton), and Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin will join the team for this event. The remaining visits are Janesville on June 25; Chippewa Falls/Eau Claire on August 14; Waukesha on August 22; and La Crosse on a date to be determined.

The tour features activities such as games, giveaways, music, and photo booths, and complimentary Babcock ice cream will be available. Some of the visits will feature interviews with local alumni chefs or other foodie trendsetters following the events.

The tour began last summer, when UW–Madison traveled to Green Bay, Sheboygan, Milwaukee, and Wausau. The events are designed to celebrate the UW’s impact on the state. From the beginning, the university has positively influenced every corner of Wisconsin, functioning as a vital contributor to the state’s industry and economy and helping to raise the standard of living. It has also provided an affordable education to hundreds of thousands of students, many of whom have stayed in — or returned to — the state and continue to give back.

“The most meaningful part of the tour has been witnessing the tangible impact that the UW has on citizens of Wisconsin through partnerships with businesses and communities,” says Sarah Schutt, the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s executive director. “I imagine the UW’s founders would be proud to see how the university they envisioned so many years ago has evolved into today’s world-class institution and become an economic engine for the state.”

Don’t miss out on the fun! See 175.wisc.edu/state-tour for more information.

Unintimidated: Two come-from-behind goals by Talafous (left) sent the Badgers into the finals. UW Archives

Life on campus was dramatically different a half century ago. The football team had only two winning seasons in 17 years, including a stretch of 23 consecutive winless games, while the men’s basketball team finished above .500 just three times from 1968 to 1988. Antiwar protests regularly roiled the university.

From such a time sprung a new men’s hockey contender. Over one improbable weekend in Boston in March 1973, the Badgers captured their first NCAA hockey title. In the 33 years that followed, they added five others — more than any other college program in that span.

Most remarkable about the achievement is that it came just seven years after Coach Bob Johnson arrived like a dynamo from Colorado College, and just three years after Wisconsin was admitted to the powerhouse Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), which had won 16 of the 22 NCAA titles up to that point.

The Badgers had been to two of the previous three NCAA tournaments before 1973, but they had never played for the title. Merely reaching Boston required a gauntlet of six games in nine days.

Wisconsin finished the regular season with a weekend sweep at home against Minnesota, completing a 17–1 record at the Dane County Coliseum. The team swept two games against the Gophers in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the last punctuated by a wild brawl with 39 seconds left. The Badgers followed a tie against Notre Dame with a 4–3 victory, punching their ticket to Boston.

Back then, the NCAA tournament was a small affair, with just four teams. Against Eastern champ Cornell in the semifinals, the Badgers fell behind 4–0 in the second period, then 5–2 early in the third. Yet the 3,000 UW fans who trekked to Boston kept cheering. “They never allowed us to die,” Johnson said.

Goals by Gary Winchester ’74 and Jim Johnston ’73 got Wisconsin within one, and with five seconds left, sophomore Dean Talafous ’74 scored. With 33 seconds left in overtime, Talafous scored again, sending the Badgers into the finals against high-powered Denver, the number one team in the country.

The Pioneers had two all-Americans and the WCHA’s top freshman, “but we weren’t intimidated,” said Wisconsin captain Tim Dool ’73, a puck-hounding dervish.

The UW fell behind early, but Dool’s second-period goal tied the game 2–2, and Talafous earned a place in Badgers lore with another game-winner. The celebration carried deep into the night in the streets of Boston.

Upon their return to Madison, the Badgers were greeted by more than 8,000 supporters at the Field House. A new dynasty in college hockey had begun.

A playful twist on traditional English pageantry. Andy Manis

For a few magical nights each holiday season, UW–Madison practically transforms into 16th-century Oxford. The annual Tudor Holiday Dinner Concerts, hosted by the Wisconsin Union, put a playful twist on traditional English pageantry. Gathered in Memorial Union’s decked-out Great Hall, guests indulge in a feast fit for royalty while enjoying a spirited performance from the Philharmonic Chorus of Madison and a ceremonial presentation of a (fake) boar’s head.

The Tudor Holiday Dinner Concerts date to 1933, when a group of singers under the direction of music professor Edgar Gordon ’27, MA’29 performed at the University Club and the Memorial Union. The boar’s head was inspired by a tradition at the University of Rochester in New York, which drew on an old English legend of a scholar who slew a wild boar by ramming a book by Aristotle down its throat. (Score a point for academia?)

The evening typically begins with a cocktail hour, with hors d’oeuvres and traditional wassail (hot mulled cider). When the bells ring, it’s time for the presentation of the boar’s head, a yuletide toast, and the start of the feast. The Wisconsin Union’s catering team brings out the extravagant spread. This year’s entrées include maple-glazed pork tenderloin with mustard fingerlings and a vegetarian maple-glazed acorn squash. Dessert is always flaming figgy pudding with a hard sauce.

The UW’s Tudor Singers performed at the event until 1972, when the Philharmonic Chorus of Madison took over. Now, the crowd sings along with the ensemble’s holiday carols. The night ends with a formal concert, which includes stately renditions of “Silent Night” and Mozart’s “Dona Nobis Pacem.”

After a COVID-19 hiatus in 2020 and 2021, the Tudor Holiday Dinner Concerts return this year to Great Hall. The Wisconsin Union will host five events from November 30 to December 4, offering some 250 tickets for each.

“Tudor Holiday Dinner Concerts are nights of relaxation, delicious food, and beautiful artistry,” says Shauna Breneman, communications director for the Wisconsin Union. “They are the perfect way to enjoy winter as a family, couple, or group of friends.”

In other words: long may this tradition reign.

On the UW campus, music is everywhere, whether it’s being performed on stages or taught in classrooms. Little wonder, then, that the university has produced popular musicians of the highest order. They’ve mastered their genres, sold millions of records, even been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Here are some of the greatest songs by artists Badgers can proudly call their own.

“Down So Low” | Mother Earth, 1968

Madison native Tracy Nelson x’67 spent a couple of years at the UW studying social work and singing at parties and coffeehouses. Then California beckoned. In San Francisco she fronted the blues-rock band Mother Earth and, following a romance with future rock legend Steve Miller x’65, wrote the weeper “Down So Low.”

Nelson has recorded the soul-inflected song numerous times over the years. As performed by Mother Earth, it’s staggering, a slow burn punctuated by startling key changes and sweet backing vocals. Nelson’s singing is gigantic. “I know your opinion of me isn’t good,” she moans, and anyone who’s ever been through a breakup knows just what she means.

“Feel Your Groove” | Ben Sidran, 1971

After earning a doctorate in American studies at the University of Sussex, keyboardist Ben Sidran ’67 launched a music career that included work with the Steve Miller Band and a series of solo albums on which he perfected a distinctive blend of jazz and rock. “Feel Your Groove,” the title track of his debut release, feels like a statement of purpose, with Mose Allison–inflected speak-singing, dreamy chord sequences, teasing strings, and an extended jam that signifies maximal groove-feeling.

“Dueling Banjos” | Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell, 1973

Bluegrass seldom dominates the pop charts, but that’s what happened in 1973, when the rollicking “Dueling Banjos” peaked at number two on Billboard’s Hot 100. The release was also a number-five country hit and even topped the easy-listening chart. Not bad for this simple instrumental duet recorded by guitarist Steve Mandell and, on banjo, the late Eric Weissberg x’61. (Right, one of the banjos on “Dueling Banjos” isn’t a banjo. Don’t worry.)

Weissberg attended the UW and the Juilliard School of Music before collaborating with future screenwriter and director Marshall Brickman ’62 on a 1963 album, New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass. Tracks from that album, as well as “Dueling Banjos,” wound up on the soundtrack of Deliverance, the unsettling 1972 film that gave “Banjos” its wide audience.

“The Joker” | Steve Miller Band, 1973

Steve Miller came of age musically in Texas, but his roots are in Milwaukee. That’s where he had an early mentor in Les Paul, a pioneer of electric guitar and a good guy for a future Rock & Roll Hall of Famer to know. At the UW, he founded the Ardells, which featured future stars Boz Scaggs x’66 and Sidran. Miller left Wisconsin to soak up the blues in Chicago, then made his way to San Francisco and launched a campaign to conquer radio and the rest of the world.

A series of albums and singles met, at first, middling success. Then came “The Joker.” It reached number one on the Billboard pop chart and set the template for hit records that followed: sparkling arrangement, glib lyrics, guitar hooks no one forgets. But as great as other Miller singles are, “The Joker” wields a secret weapon: the word pompatus. Pompatus.

“Lowdown” | Boz Scaggs, 1976

Boz Scaggs and Steve Miller were friends and musical collaborators as schoolboys in Texas, and with the Ardells they entertained in dorms and at sorority parties. Scaggs appeared on the first two Steve Miller Band albums and released a series of tasteful solo albums that didn’t make much of a commercial impact, notwithstanding the searing Duane Allman collaboration “Loan Me a Dime,” from Scaggs’s second, self-titled release. But when Scaggs released Silk Degrees in 1976, the album’s deft agglomeration of soul, rock, and disco captured a moment. The Force was strongest on the low-key “Lowdown,” with its sly groove and louche lyrics, to say nothing of a flute earworm to beat all flute earworms.

Silk Degrees was a multiplatinum smash. No need to wonder-wonder-wonder who is doing that smooth, dare we say silky, singing. It’s Boz.

“Member of the Family” | Spooner, 1982

Garbage cofounder and drummer Butch Vig ’80 walked a long road to alt-rock megastardom. A native of Viroqua, Wisconsin, Vig studied film at the UW. Beginning in the 1970s he was in the power-pop band Spooner, along with future Garbage guitarist Duke Erikson, and the band went on to release three indie albums. The first, 1982’s Every Corner Dance, received positive attention in Rolling Stone. Singer/ guitarist/songwriter Erikson “acknowledges his debt to the Beatles in just about every song,” critic Lloyd Sachs wrote.

The album yielded the memorable track “Member of the Family,” which features the jerky rhythms and tinny keyboards familiar to fans of early 1980s New Wave. The song’s melancholy lyrics fit uneasily with the upbeat music, and what’s more New Wave than that?

Fire Town’s “Carry the Torch” features chiming guitars and Byrds-like dreaminess.

“Carry the Torch” | Fire Town, 1986

Next on Butch Vig’s musical journey came Fire Town, a rock band whose members included another UW alum, Phil Davis ’76, MA’81. The group released a pair of albums with Atlantic, In the Heart of the Heart Country and The Good Life. A standout track from the former, “Carry the Torch,” features the chiming guitars and Byrds-like dreaminess that were all the rage on college radio in the mid-1980s.

“Stupid Girl” | Garbage, 1995

The music Butch Vig made with his 1980s bands was taut and effective, but something was missing. That something, it turns out, was Shirley Manson. Vig, Steve Marker, and Duke Erikson teamed with the flame-haired Scots siren to form Garbage. A signature act of alternative rock’s commercial triumph in the 1990s, Garbage has sold zillions of albums, played the grand stages of the world, and recorded a James Bond theme, all while maintaining its acerbic wit and fierce artistic integrity. At the height of their fame, band members stayed in Wisconsin even as performers not half as successful might have drifted to the coasts.

“Stupid Girl,” the highest-charting single from the group’s self-titled debut, perfectly encapsulates the Garbage strategy: voluptuous synthesizers, concise guitar hooks, arch lyrics, and, best of all, Manson’s menacing vocals. Wherever this song is playing it’s 1995 again, but only in good ways.

“Breakfast of Champions” | Rainer Maria, 1999

From the ashes of another group named for a poet, Ezra Pound, UW students Kaia Fischer ’97, William Kuehn ’93, and Caithlin De Marrais ’96 formed Rainer Maria. The emo combo made a name for itself among indie fans with its musing lyrics, soft-loud dynamics, and proudly unvarnished singing. In the 1990s and 2000s, the group released five albums and toured the small venues of the unforgiving indie circuit before parting ways in 2006. They subsequently reformed and, in 2017, released another album, S/T.

“Breakfast of Champions,” from the 1999 release Look Now Look Again, is a mournful, despairing breakup song with lyrics that are in turn abstract and all too precise in their sadness. “When he left me, we drove into a snowstorm,” De Marrais murmurs at the end. Sigh.

Peter and Lou Berryman: “I used to sit out on the Terrace and watch my grade point disappear.” Brent Nicastro

“Madison, Wisconsin” | Lou and Peter Berryman, 2000

Madison-based Lou ’77 and Peter x’69 Berryman have forged a long, remarkable career recording albums and performing their funny, subversive songs in folk clubs and church basements. Accordionist Lou writes the music, guitarist Peter the lyrics, and they harmonize robustly as they sing laugh-out-loud ditties about consumer paranoia, ecological dread, and weird stuff in the refrigerator. Career highlights include Love Is the Weirdest of All, a 2004 theatrical revue of Berryman songs that Madison Repertory Theatre staged in the UW’s Vilas Hall.

“Madison, Wisconsin” is a sweet, nostalgic tribute to the Badger State capital in general and the UW experience in particular. “I used to sit out on the Terrace,” they sing, “and watch my grade point disappear.”

“I’m Not Shy” | Joy and the Boy, 2004

Ben isn’t the only talented Sidran to graduate from the UW. Son Leo Sidran ’99 is a music-business veteran in his own right, with credits that include the Academy Award–winning song he produced, Jorge Drexler’s “Al Otro Lado del Río,” from the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries. In the early 2000s, Sidran teamed with the gifted singer-songwriter Joy Dragland ’00 to form the pop duo Joy and the Boy. Early gigs included a 2000 spot opening for presidential candidate Al Gore on Madison’s Capitol Square. Then came a series of releases, each one a showcase for Sidran’s taut musicianship and Dragland’s poised singing.

A standout song is “I’m Not Shy” from the pair’s first album, Paradise, with a teasing vocal by Dragland and a lively beat that recalls 1970s funk. “I’m not shy,” she purrs, and we believe her.

“Night” | Zola Jesus, 2010

As a UW student, Nika Roza Danilova ’10 studied philosophy and French. She also developed Zola Jesus, the brooding, goth-inflected music persona that, starting in the early 2010s, has been received ecstatically in the indie music world and beyond. Danilova has released a series of acclaimed albums marked by her powerful, operatic singing. “Not many female pop voices have sounded like this,” the New York Times reported admiringly in 2011.

“Night,” a highlight of Danilova’s 2010 release Stridulum II, recalls goth icons like Siouxsie and the Banshees with its moody atmospherics. Yes, it’s a love song, but take a line like: “In the end of the night we’ll rest our bones.” “Rest our bones” is a normal, everyday saying, but in this gloomy setting it has all kinds of creepy connotations.

“Devils and Angels” | Toby Lightman, 2013

As a member of the Chi Omega sorority, Toby Lightman ’00 honed her musical chops performing in Humorology, the annual variety show staged by UW Greek organizations. “I was in the cast all four years and directed my senior year,” she told the Badger Herald in 2004. After graduation the Cherry Hill, New Jersey, native tended bar in New York City and eventually signed with Lava Records.

Her debut album, Little Things, included “Devils and Angels,” a cheeky woman-done-wrong anthem that melds rock and hip-hop sounds with Lightman’s seething lyrics. “I’m going to greet you at her back door as you’re coming out,” she hisses. That can’t end well! The song slid into the Top 20 on Billboard’s Adult Pop chart, and a series of major-label and independent releases followed.

“Impossible” | Lucien Parker, 2017

Since 2007, undergraduates in the UW’s First Wave scholarship program have studied hip-hop culture in its many aspects — rap, poetry, visual art, dance. Some have gone on to successful recording careers, including rapper Lucien Parker ’19, the South Minneapolis native who landed his musing, low-key track “Impossible” on an episode of the Marvel TV series Cloak & Dagger. That makes Parker officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Achievement unlocked!

“Mr. Clean” | Yung Gravy, 2018

In the weeks leading up to his UW graduation, rapper Matthew Hauri ’17, a.k.a. Yung Gravy, had to miss class — but not for the usual college-student reasons. He was flying off for contract negotiations with major music labels.

The absences paid off when Hauri signed with Republic Records and launched a platinum-selling recording career. But he notched one of his greatest successes when he was still an independent artist: “Mr. Clean,” which samples the Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” and features Hauri’s funny boasting about his romantic conquests. The video, in which Hauri traverses Lake Mendota on a Sea-Doo, is a stitch.

Zhalarina’s “Lala” is a love letter to her father.

“Lala” | Zhalarina, 2019

Another First Wave alum, rapper Zhalarina Sanders ’15, MS’18, earned a regional Emmy for The Light, a collection of music videos she created for PBS Wisconsin.

She told National Public Radio that her powerful track “Lala” is a love letter to her father, who was incarcerated when she wrote it. “My favorite thing about the song is that it has done exactly what I wanted it to do for my family,” she said. “My dad definitely cries every time he hears it.”

“The Wine Talkin’ ” | The CashBox Kings, 2019

Harmonica player Joe Nosek ’97, MA’00 formed the blues band the Cash Box Kings as a UW graduate student in the early 2000s. His inspiration, he told the Chicago Tribune in 2017, was the Windy City legends whose music he heard when growing up in the Chicago suburbs: James Cotton, Junior Wells, Sunnyland Slim. “We wanted to help keep alive the traditional ’40s, ’50s, ’60s Chicago blues sound, and the ensemble approach to playing blues music,” Nosek said. A key personnel change came in 2007, when Chicago singer Oscar Wilson joined the lineup. The band tours internationally and has released albums steadily since its 2003 debut, Live! At the King Club.

On the group’s latest, 2019’s Hail to the Kings!, Brown duets amusingly with blues diva Shemekia Copeland in the boisterous shuffle “The Wine Talkin’.”

De Shields’s singing is merrily malevolent on “Road to Hell.” Lia Chang

“Road to Hell” | André De Shields, 2019

If you were watching the Tony Awards in 2019, there’s a 99 percent chance you cried as actor-singer-dancer-director-choreographer André De Shields ’70 accepted his honor for best featured actor in the musical Hadestown, which revisits the mythology of Eurydice and Orpheus. Rather than rattling off the list of names typical of these moments, De Shields shared what he called his cardinal rules of ability and longevity, beginning with: “Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming.” It was a graceful moment in an unforgettable career, and the award was well deserved.

His signature tune from the show, “Road to Hell” by Anaïs Mitchell, opens the proceedings with a slinky New Orleans sound and singing that is merrily malevolent.

“Rakin’ and Scrapin’ ” | Leon Lee Dorsey, 2021

At the UW, jazz bassist Leon Lee Dorsey MM’83 studied with legendary professor Richard Davis. Now Dorsey’s an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and the list of artists he has performed with is a who’s-who of American music: Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey.

Dorsey also leads his own band, and his latest release, 2021’s Thank You Mr. Mabern!, was the final recording project of the late pianist Harold Mabern, a legend in his own right. The Mabern composition “Rakin’ and Scrapin’ ” is a standout. •

The thing about being an undergraduate is, you are not usually tuned in to fine dining. Generally, undergrads have neither the time nor the money to be gourmands.

With the money I saved, though, I would reward myself with a slice of fudge-bottom pie or a Babcock ice cream cone from the Union — or better, a hot fudge sundae if I rode my bike out to Babcock Hall. And every so often, I would invest in a glass of good red wine and a slice of Queen of Sheba cake at the then-reigning monarch of State Street dining, the Ovens of Brittany.

My good friend Becky Harth ’82, who waitressed at the Ovens while in school, remembers the restaurant’s morning buns, as well as other local favorites: “Rocky Rococo slices, sprout and cheese sandwiches on grain bread, and tap beer — never from bottles.” It’s a representative selection from the early 1980s. There are beginnings of locavorism side by side with remnants of hippie dishes and the pizza and beer beloved by 20-year-olds everywhere.

Although UW–Madison doesn’t have a dish named after it, the school has plenty of reasons to distinguish it as a unique culinary zone. And besides, who wants to eat Harvard beets anyway?

In the Beginning

The first dining hall on campus was in South Hall, one of the original dormitories along with North Hall. Scott Seyforth PhD’14, current assistant director of residence life, says the kitchen was overseen by the wife of math professor John Sterling.

Many students, however, lived off campus and would have needed to find food elsewhere. Following a fire in Science Hall in 1884, North and South Halls were taken over for classroom instruction, and there were no dorms for men until the opening of Tripp and Adams in 1926. Women continued living on campus in Ladies Hall, which was later renamed for UW president Paul Chadbourne — in a kind of reprimand by President E. A. Birge, who wanted to punish Chadbourne for his lack of enthusiasm for coeducation on campus. While no official menus or recipes have survived from this earliest era of the UW, it’s reasonable to assume students ate meals the way other Madisonians did during the period. Recipes from early residents were collected by Lynne Watrous Hamel in 1974’s A Taste of Old Madison. In the latter half of the 1800s, soups might range from those familiar today, like black bean, to a corn soup made with plenty of venison — or, barring the availability of that meat, rabbit, squirrel, pigeon, or duck.

Hamel includes a recipe for popovers from President Birge’s wife, Anna; cornmeal/pumpkin pancakes from Emma Curtiss Bascom, wife of president John Bascom; and crullers from the wife of Thomas Chamberlin, who followed Bascom as president. These doughnuts would not be unfamiliar to the decades of students who have haunted the Greenbush Bakery on Regent Street for treats fresh out of the fryer.

Desserts tended to be spice and fruit cakes or fruit pies; cookies were likely to be ginger, oatmeal, or sugar. Chocolate, that staple of today’s desserts, was not produced for the mass market until the late 1800s.

Carson Gulley: Influencer

The next era of UW cuisine begins in December 1926 with the hiring of Carson Gulley as head chef of the new Van Hise Refectory, which opened in conjunction with the first lakeshore dorms that year. Don Halverson MA 1918, then director of dormitories and commons, discovered Gulley working in a resort up north and hired him on the strength of his cooking.

Gulley was influential not just in campus kitchens, where he paid special attention to cook training, but in Madison as a whole. As an African American, he fought Madison segregation laws for years along with his wife, Beatrice, in their attempts to buy a house.

The couple encountered so many barriers that the UW built the Gulleys an apartment in the basement of Tripp Hall before they finally managed to buy a home in the Crestwood subdivision.

He and Beatrice had a pioneering cooking show on Madison television in the 1950s, and many area families and UW graduates still use his method for roasting a turkey — no basting required. Still, Gulley is most often remembered as the creator of the UW’s fudge-bottom pie: a graham-cracker-crusted, vanilla-custard-filled, whipped-cream-topped concoction distinguished by a bottom layer of intense chocolate. Some sources claim the recipe came from two chefs at the Memorial Union, and both the dorm cafeterias and the Union have served the pie for years. As its originator, Gulley wins out in popular memory, and his recipe for the pie is included in his cookbook Seasoning Secrets and Favorite Recipes of Carson Gulley.

Celebrity chef Carson Gulley, creator of the UW’s fudge-bottom pie. UW Archives S15057

Gulley, who died in 1962, was honored when the Van Hise Refectory was renamed Carson Gulley Commons in 1966. It’s now called Carson’s Market within the Carson Gulley Center.

The Mysterious Maizo Salad

Since the Memorial Union opened in 1928, it’s been in the business of serving daily breakfast, lunch, and supper from fast student sustenance to fine dining. For much of the 20th century, the Georgian Grill was a table-service, linen-tablecloth restaurant on the second floor, while Tripp Commons was a cafeteria-style gathering place for faculty and students (in addition to the Rathskeller and the Lakefront Cafeteria on the first floor). Ted Crabb ’54, director of the Memorial Union from 1968 to 2000, says the Georgian Grill was a “very elegant dining room” used to entertain visiting guests and was frequented by the public before theater performances. Faculty would bring their families there for dinner in the evening.

Tripp Commons often saw faculty and their students meeting at lunch, pulling tables together, and “discussing the issues of the day,” says Crabb. “There was a sense of community.”

Many Union menus from Tripp Commons and the Georgian Grill from the 1940s have been saved in the University Archives. Lunches usually included a lighter option like a sandwich or creamed chipped beef on toast, but there were also heartier entrées that could serve as dinner.

Dinners included an entrée, vegetable, fruit, roll, and beverage. Meat was the star of the show — veal, lamb, pork chops, steak, roast beef, chicken. There was the occasional inclusion of smoked beef tongue or one-offs like a chicken liver omelet with creole sauce. Global cuisine was limited to chow mein and “Italian spaghetti with meatballs and parmesan cheese.”

Crabb says the most popular meal at the Georgian Grill was steak, and the most requested dessert was fudge-bottom pie.

Salads were also in rotation. Lots of them. In addition to a spinach salad that wouldn’t be out of place in today’s dining rooms, there was “banana and salted peanut,” “devilled cabbage,” many aspics and gelatins, and some whose ingredients are likely lost to time, like a perplexing “Maizo” salad.

1955 cookbooks with recipes for “veal birds.” UW Archives

Most dishes say “1940s America” more than they say “Wisconsin” specifically, although the state’s cheeses are sometimes called out as part of a menu item. “Fresh red plum with Wisconsin cheese and toasted crackers,” “Wis. blue cheese with t. crax.,” “apple pie with Wisconsin cheese,” and “grilled Wisconsin cheese sandwich” all make appearances. The recipe for the mysterious “veal birds,” an entrée that crops up frequently in the 1940s Union menus, is included in both a 1955 and a 1965 version of a cookbook for Elizabeth Waters Residence Hall. It collected recipes “for all girls of Liz who will wish to recapture an important part of dorm life — mealtime,” as the introduction to the 1955 edition puts it. Veal birds are strips of veal steak stuffed with a bread-cube dressing, rolled, and baked.

Another milestone from midcentury was the Babcock Dairy Store, which was an innovation included in plans for the new Babcock Hall in 1950. The small dairy bar on Linden Drive was intended primarily for campus patrons, as the university did not want its product to compete with commercial ice cream producers.

Comfort Food

Campus dining underwent many changes during the reign of Rheta McCutchin ’56, food service director from 1958 to 2002. In the 1970s, McCutchin was instrumental in creating an eater-friendly, à la carte model. She said the other Big Ten schools thought the UW was crazy for going to individual item choice and pricing, but the system served the university well for many years. McCutchin was also instrumental in making food available at a wider range of hours and introducing more global flavors into the menu.

When Julie Luke began working for dining services in 1985, many of Carson Gulley’s original recipes were still in rotation. “Probably up to 1995 or so, there were a lot of remnants of cuisine that started with Carson,” says Luke, who retired in 2017 as associate director.

By the mid-1990s, though, even modifying the old recipes wasn’t quite working. “That older-style food just wasn’t what the students were looking for,” Luke remembers. “But I think the basics of what Carson stood for — the quality of ingredients, his technique, his commitment to teaching students — have stayed.”

Luke says student favorites tended to be “comfort food,” like macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes and gravy. And they were good — made from scratch.

Luke mentions a popular mint brownie from the mid-1980s. The minute the words are out of her mouth, that brownie materializes in front of me like the dagger in front of Macbeth. Dense and fudgy, it had a layer of vivid mint-green frosting. A recipe for “Creme de Menthe Bars” is included in McCutchin’s three-ring binders held in Steenbock Library, with the suggestion that green food coloring and extra mint extract can be substituted for the creme de menthe. It sure sounds like the brownie I remember. The bad news for the from-scratch crowd: its base ingredient is Pillsbury Tradition Brownie Fudge Mix.

I was unable to track down another dessert bar I think I remember from that era. It had a sweet crumb crust so caramelized it might as well have been pure brown sugar, topped with a mix of nuts, dried fruits, granola, and chocolate chips. “It was very sweet,” I tell Luke, probably unnecessarily, but she doesn’t recall the dessert. Anybody?

Personal Kitchens

Peter Testory, the current director of dining and culinary services, emphasizes the attention that his team gives to student suggestions when it comes to recipe development. “First and foremost, we continually gather student feedback,” he says. “What are the flavor profiles that they’re looking for?” This evolves constantly with each new group of students.

In the last five years, Testory has seen students looking for bolder and spicier flavors, but interest in food doesn’t stop at how it tastes. “We’ve seen a huge increase in interest in where the food comes from, what manufacturers we have relationships with, and the practices of those manufacturers,” he says. “How do they treat their employees? What humane practices do they have for animals? The whole process.”

That includes a reusable to-go container program. Students exchange a token for the container, which can then be returned to be cleaned. Upon return, the student gets a new token.

Testory sees the dining halls as being students’ “personal kitchens,” and so it is crucial to “make sure that we are in tune with what menu offerings they want.” That can mean the availability of grab-and-go items as well as plenty of options for what looks like an old-fashioned sit-down dinner. Today, boneless chicken wings are one of the most consistently popular items.

Dining areas are now called “markets,” and the choices available are like a cafeteria times four. Stations serve customizable pastas, pizza, noodle bowls, stir fries, and multiple vegetarian and vegan options like dal, black bean burgers, and tempeh with red peppers and broccoli rabe. There’s even vegan beer-battered cod for a traditional — or maybe not so traditional — Friday fish fry.

“We’re starting to see more and more interest in our plant-based vegan and vegetarian options — grain bowls, Beyond burgers, plant-based chicken nuggets and patties,” Testory says.

Yet even though the markets are full of dishes that Carson Gulley might not recognize, such as a barbecue jackfruit sandwich or imam bayildi, there are, too, daily options that could make Gulley — or most alumni — believe they’d been transported back to the campus of an earlier era. Beef sirloin tips. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Roasted brussels sprouts. Herb-crusted pork loin. Homestyle mac ’n’ cheese. And yes, even a slice of fudge-bottom pie now and then.

How to Make UW–Madison’s Fudge Bottom Pie

Ingredients

Crust:

• 4 ounces graham crumbs
• 2 ounces brown sugar
• 2.5 ounces melted butter
• Pinch of salt

Custard:

• 16 ounces whole milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 ounces granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 ounce cornstarch
• 1 ounce butter
• 2 ounces high-quality dark chocolate, chopped

Whipped cream:

• 16 ounces heavy cream
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Garnish:

2 tablespoons of shaved chocolate

Making a fudge-bottom pie with Ruthie Schommer, University Housing pastry chef. Photos by Bryce Richter

To Make the Crust

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, by hand. Pat down into a standard 9-inch pie pan and bake at 325 for 12 minutes. Cool completely.

To Make the Custard

Combine milk, half the sugar, salt, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk together cornstarch and sugar in a small bowl, then whisk in eggs. When milk mixture is at a simmer, temper in egg mixture and bring just to a boil, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and whisk in butter until fully incorporated. Strain.

Remove 8 ounces of vanilla custard and combine with the 2 ounces of chopped dark chocolate immediately; the heat of the custard should melt the chocolate.

Cover remaining vanilla custard with plastic wrap, so that the wrap is fully in contact with the surface of the custard, to prevent it from forming a skin. Refrigerate 6-8 hours or overnight before assembling the pie. Cover the chocolate custard likewise and also refrigerate until pie assembly.

To Assemble the Pie

Whip cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in a small mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy.

While the cream is whipping, spread the chocolate custard mixture evenly onto the bottom of the pie crust.

Fold about a quarter of the whipped cream into the vanilla custard, then spread evenly over the chocolate custard layer.

Finally, top with remaining whipped cream. Garnish with shaved chocolate.