Philanthropy
Polishing a Gem
Throughout the years, this couple has loved campus natural areas.
Friday, October 13, 1972, was a sunny sixty-five degrees — perfect for a stroll to Picnic Point and a wedding. Thirty friends and family of Terry Kelly ’71 and Mary Waller Kelly ’76 walked through the iron gate in the stone fence and up the leaf-strewn path to the old apple orchard.
As a flutist played, guests watched Terry and Mary exchange their vows in what Terry calls a typical “hippie wedding.” The group then gathered at Porta Bella, where the wedding feast — costing a staggering $4.95 per person — featured, according to Mary, “really bad pink champagne.
Thirty-four years later, Picnic Point and the entire Lakeshore Nature Preserve remain important to the Kellys. “When we were students, we would pack a picnic lunch and sit in the apple orchard,” says Terry. “Generations of students like us met there, dreamed there, fell in love there. I suppose we thought it was always there and always would be the same.”
The future that the Kellys began to shape on their wedding day came to include three accomplished sons and several successful businesses. Terry, a former Madison TV weathercaster, is chair and CEO of Weather Central, Inc., and president and founder of Rhythm & Booms, Madison’s famous Fourth of July event. The Kellys also are founding investors in progressive talk radio’s Air America.
Both the couple’s friendship with William Cronon ’76, professor of history, environmental studies, and geography, and chair of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve Committee, and their own commitment to the environment, have deepened their appreciation for the natural areas around Madison.
“I used to think that benign neglect, when it came to natural spaces, was a good thing, “ Mary says. “Now I realize that there needs to be a balance in nature.”
Friday, October 13, 1972, was a sunny sixty-five degrees — perfect for a stroll to Picnic Point and a wedding. Thirty friends and family of Terry Kelly ’71 and Mary Waller Kelly ’76 walked through the iron gate in the stone fence and up the leaf-strewn path to the old apple orchard.
As a flutist played, guests watched Terry and Mary exchange their vows in what Terry calls a typical “hippie wedding.” The group then gathered at Porta Bella, where the wedding feast — costing a staggering $4.95 per person — featured, according to Mary, “really bad pink champagne.
Thirty-four years later, Picnic Point and the entire Lakeshore Nature Preserve remain important to the Kellys. “When we were students, we would pack a picnic lunch and sit in the apple orchard,” says Terry. “Generations of students like us met there, dreamed there, fell in love there. I suppose we thought it was always there and always would be the same.”
The future that the Kellys began to shape on their wedding day came to include three accomplished sons and several successful businesses. Terry, a former Madison TV weathercaster, is chair and CEO of Weather Central, Inc., and president and founder of Rhythm & Booms, Madison’s famous Fourth of July event. The Kellys also are founding investors in progressive talk radio’s Air America.
Both the couple’s friendship with William Cronon ’76, professor of history, environmental studies, and geography, and chair of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve Committee, and their own commitment to the environment, have deepened their appreciation for the natural areas around Madison.
“I used to think that benign neglect, when it came to natural spaces, was a good thing, “ Mary says. “Now I realize that there needs to be a balance in nature.”
“It’s astonishing to look at some of the photos over time,” Terry says. “This area is like a beautiful old house that needs both preservation and loving renewal, including managing the vegetation so you can see both [the point’s] natural beauty and the views from it.”
Explaining that two other major threats to the Lakeshore Nature Preserve are storm water runoff into University Bay and encroaching urban development, Terry says, “We need to work to resolve these issues to make [the preserve] the maximum jewel it can be.”
Like others actively involved with the preserve, the Kellys want to help safeguard these areas so that future generations can explore, discover, and create memories of their own.
Through their Kelly Family Foundation, the Kellys are making a lead gift to endow grants designated for undergraduate outreach efforts that will teach people of all ages about the history, importance, and preservation needs of this natural area.
Terry and Mary have witnessed in their own family how education can raise awareness and interest in places like Picnic Point. “After our youngest son, along with the rest of our family, viewed Professor Cronon’s slide presentation at our home, he spent a good portion of the following day exploring the Lakeshore area along with several friends,” recalls Mary.
The Kellys take environmental education seriously. Terry helped to create — and serves as chair of — the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, the primary source for outreach environmental education in southern Wisconsin. “We have all these natural gems in Wisconsin, and we all hope to be environmentally sensitive adults, but there is a need for cooperative programming for students to help them become aware of, and sensitive to, our environment,” Terry says.
Leopold himself expressed a wish that the Kellys are working to fulfill: “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
— Merry Anderson
Explaining that two other major threats to the Lakeshore Nature Preserve are storm water runoff into University Bay and encroaching urban development, Terry says, “We need to work to resolve these issues to make [the preserve] the maximum jewel it can be.”
Like others actively involved with the preserve, the Kellys want to help safeguard these areas so that future generations can explore, discover, and create memories of their own.
Through their Kelly Family Foundation, the Kellys are making a lead gift to endow grants designated for undergraduate outreach efforts that will teach people of all ages about the history, importance, and preservation needs of this natural area.
Terry and Mary have witnessed in their own family how education can raise awareness and interest in places like Picnic Point. “After our youngest son, along with the rest of our family, viewed Professor Cronon’s slide presentation at our home, he spent a good portion of the following day exploring the Lakeshore area along with several friends,” recalls Mary.
The Kellys take environmental education seriously. Terry helped to create — and serves as chair of — the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, the primary source for outreach environmental education in southern Wisconsin. “We have all these natural gems in Wisconsin, and we all hope to be environmentally sensitive adults, but there is a need for cooperative programming for students to help them become aware of, and sensitive to, our environment,” Terry says.
Leopold himself expressed a wish that the Kellys are working to fulfill: “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
— Merry Anderson
Lessons for a Lifetime
Gift honors alumna’s remarkable teaching career.
How do we learn generosity? Laura Linden ’28, MA’29 thinks example is the most memorable teacher. As a high school educator herself for forty-nine years, she knows a bit about delivering lessons that last a lifetime. Just shy of her one hundredth birthday, Linden is still teaching by example.
Perhaps her dearest pupil is her niece, Nancy Johnson Nicholas ’55. Nancy and her spouse, Ab Nicholas’52, MBA’55, are devoted supporters of UW-Madison. Recently, Nancy honored her aunt with a gift to the School of Human Ecology’s 100 Women campaign. Linden is one of the first exceptional women formally recognized in this ongoing campaign as embodying the school’s mission of improving the quality of human life. The gift is helping to build an expanded facility for the school and its students.
To be effective, a teacher must connect with students. Linden had the knack. She proudly shows visitors a birthday card she received from someone she taught sixty years ago. “I must have had some influence,” she says with a giggle.
Linden continues to influence young people. Several years ago, seventh-graders at Winnequah Middle School in Monona, Wisconsin, interviewed a group of senior citizens and wrote biographies, which they made into books. The three teenage girls assigned to Linden titled their hand-illustrated publication, “The Joy of Giving.” Clearly they picked out the recurring theme in her life.
“Laura has a passion for giving. ... Her list of organizations she donates to is like the never-ending sky,” they wrote.
How do we learn generosity? Laura Linden ’28, MA’29 thinks example is the most memorable teacher. As a high school educator herself for forty-nine years, she knows a bit about delivering lessons that last a lifetime. Just shy of her one hundredth birthday, Linden is still teaching by example.
Perhaps her dearest pupil is her niece, Nancy Johnson Nicholas ’55. Nancy and her spouse, Ab Nicholas’52, MBA’55, are devoted supporters of UW-Madison. Recently, Nancy honored her aunt with a gift to the School of Human Ecology’s 100 Women campaign. Linden is one of the first exceptional women formally recognized in this ongoing campaign as embodying the school’s mission of improving the quality of human life. The gift is helping to build an expanded facility for the school and its students.
To be effective, a teacher must connect with students. Linden had the knack. She proudly shows visitors a birthday card she received from someone she taught sixty years ago. “I must have had some influence,” she says with a giggle.
Linden continues to influence young people. Several years ago, seventh-graders at Winnequah Middle School in Monona, Wisconsin, interviewed a group of senior citizens and wrote biographies, which they made into books. The three teenage girls assigned to Linden titled their hand-illustrated publication, “The Joy of Giving.” Clearly they picked out the recurring theme in her life.
“Laura has a passion for giving. ... Her list of organizations she donates to is like the never-ending sky,” they wrote.
The list may not be quite that expansive, but it is extensive. Linden’s gifts to UW-Madison have aided a range of causes, from scholarships to building projects, and from medical and health programs to the Arboretum and environmental initiatives.
“There is always a personal reason for each gift,” she says. For example, the poster of the UW women’s basketball team on the door of her room signals her enthusiastic support for Badger athletics and the marching band and hearkens back to her own exuberant youth. She proudly explains a basketball injury that resulted in her crooked finger.
When choosing to make a gift, Linden relies on three major influences: memories of her happy student years, the importance of making education accessible, and programs in the greatest need of support.
Born during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, Linden’s life story unfolded against the backdrop of the dramatic change that marked the twentieth century. As a teacher of languages, she gave thousands of students a means to communicate with and understand other cultures. She traveled the world, often by herself, and had a few hair-raising adventures. She’s enjoyed the love and companionship of family and friends. And she’s set an example of generosity that will last many lifetimes.
“We will never forget you,” her young biographers wrote. “You have inspired us all to be the best people we can be.”
Another lesson delivered; new lives enriched.
— Merry Anderson
“There is always a personal reason for each gift,” she says. For example, the poster of the UW women’s basketball team on the door of her room signals her enthusiastic support for Badger athletics and the marching band and hearkens back to her own exuberant youth. She proudly explains a basketball injury that resulted in her crooked finger.
When choosing to make a gift, Linden relies on three major influences: memories of her happy student years, the importance of making education accessible, and programs in the greatest need of support.
Born during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, Linden’s life story unfolded against the backdrop of the dramatic change that marked the twentieth century. As a teacher of languages, she gave thousands of students a means to communicate with and understand other cultures. She traveled the world, often by herself, and had a few hair-raising adventures. She’s enjoyed the love and companionship of family and friends. And she’s set an example of generosity that will last many lifetimes.
“We will never forget you,” her young biographers wrote. “You have inspired us all to be the best people we can be.”
Another lesson delivered; new lives enriched.
— Merry Anderson
