Philanthropy
In Honor of Hospitality
A gift of Chinese art acknowledges a long-ago university welcome.
When the Communist revolution in mainland China left the Chen family essentially homeless in the 1940s, they found a warm welcome and solace from UW-Madison and its neighbors.
The good feelings that hospitality engendered have been nurtured through the years. Simon PhD’52 and Rosemary Ho Chen supported many engineering students through scholarships. Now, they have made a gift of the family’s extensive collection of Chinese art and related books to the Chazen Museum of Art.
“The Chen family was treated well at [the university],” says Simon Chen, whose career in power and engine systems spanned high-level jobs with International Harvester in Chicago, Fairbanks Morse Engine in Beloit, and Beloit Power Systems, and as the chief investigator of his own Power Energy International.
“My parents appreciated the hospitality and good treatment from all these professors,” he says, mentioning late mechanical engineering faculty Edward E. Obert, Phil Myers MS’45, PhD’47, Otto Uyehara ’42, MS’43, PhD’46, and Shien-Ming (Sam) Wu ’58, PhD’62.
When the Communist revolution in mainland China left the Chen family essentially homeless in the 1940s, they found a warm welcome and solace from UW-Madison and its neighbors.
The good feelings that hospitality engendered have been nurtured through the years. Simon PhD’52 and Rosemary Ho Chen supported many engineering students through scholarships. Now, they have made a gift of the family’s extensive collection of Chinese art and related books to the Chazen Museum of Art.
“The Chen family was treated well at [the university],” says Simon Chen, whose career in power and engine systems spanned high-level jobs with International Harvester in Chicago, Fairbanks Morse Engine in Beloit, and Beloit Power Systems, and as the chief investigator of his own Power Energy International.
“My parents appreciated the hospitality and good treatment from all these professors,” he says, mentioning late mechanical engineering faculty Edward E. Obert, Phil Myers MS’45, PhD’47, Otto Uyehara ’42, MS’43, PhD’46, and Shien-Ming (Sam) Wu ’58, PhD’62.
“They all were not only good friends of mine, but good friends of the family, as well,” he says. “They helped us find jobs, to get citizenship — all these things a new family needed to survive here. They provided the social help to get us established.”
In the College of Engineering, Chen was especially influenced by Myers and Uyehara, and he worked in the Engine Research Laboratory that they established, which was then housed in a temporary building on the engineering campus called T-25. “I learned the T-25 ‘team spirit’ and from their insistence ‘to achieve and compete on a worldwide scale,’ " he says.
The Chen family gift to the Chazen of more than one hundred works includes Chinese paintings, woodblock prints, calligraphy, folding fans, and rubbings created between 1692 and 1996.
About forty works from the collection were featured this summer at a Chazen exhibit. “The Chazen had hardly any Chinese painting and no calligraphy before this gift,” says Julia Murray, a UW-Madison professor of art history, East Asian studies, and religious studies who curated the exhibit. “This collection elevates the museum’s holdings and will be a marvelous resource for study and public appreciation.”
The Chens, who plan to add another seventy to eighty art works to the current collection, say that “giving back is a natural thing to do.” They are also making a gift to help add a “T-25 room” to the newly refurbished Mechanical Engineering Building in memory of Myers and Uyehara.
— Chris DuPré
In the College of Engineering, Chen was especially influenced by Myers and Uyehara, and he worked in the Engine Research Laboratory that they established, which was then housed in a temporary building on the engineering campus called T-25. “I learned the T-25 ‘team spirit’ and from their insistence ‘to achieve and compete on a worldwide scale,’ " he says.
The Chen family gift to the Chazen of more than one hundred works includes Chinese paintings, woodblock prints, calligraphy, folding fans, and rubbings created between 1692 and 1996.
About forty works from the collection were featured this summer at a Chazen exhibit. “The Chazen had hardly any Chinese painting and no calligraphy before this gift,” says Julia Murray, a UW-Madison professor of art history, East Asian studies, and religious studies who curated the exhibit. “This collection elevates the museum’s holdings and will be a marvelous resource for study and public appreciation.”
The Chens, who plan to add another seventy to eighty art works to the current collection, say that “giving back is a natural thing to do.” They are also making a gift to help add a “T-25 room” to the newly refurbished Mechanical Engineering Building in memory of Myers and Uyehara.
— Chris DuPré
A Path to Possibility
A couple’s endowment just might nurture a future leader.
Shared values and personal traits such as hard work, common sense, intellectual integrity, quick and sound judgment, and thrift have not only been the glue that binds the marriage of William ’64, MS’67, PhD’69 and Renate Sperber — they also have allowed the couple to establish an undergraduate scholarship fund at the UW Foundation.
The Sperbers believe that one of the recipients of their support could one day become a leader who will find the solution to one of the world’s most critical problems.
The endowment, which will be funded largely by a bequest from the Sperbers’ estate, is expected to support a minimum of eight full-tuition scholarships per year.
Shared values and personal traits such as hard work, common sense, intellectual integrity, quick and sound judgment, and thrift have not only been the glue that binds the marriage of William ’64, MS’67, PhD’69 and Renate Sperber — they also have allowed the couple to establish an undergraduate scholarship fund at the UW Foundation.
The Sperbers believe that one of the recipients of their support could one day become a leader who will find the solution to one of the world’s most critical problems.
The endowment, which will be funded largely by a bequest from the Sperbers’ estate, is expected to support a minimum of eight full-tuition scholarships per year.
William Sperber, the grandson of German immigrants, was born in Door County, Wisconsin, in 1941. He knew he wanted to be a scientist or a biologist from the time he was young. Raised by Lutheran farmers emerging from the Great Depression, he was fascinated by how grass grew and by how things worked. In 1959, when he enrolled in the UW’s College of Engineering, he did so with no financial support from his family. After a year, he transferred to the College of Letters and Science, where he received a bachelor’s degree with majors in zoology and chemistry. He earned a master’s degree and a PhD from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, then went on to a successful career as a microbiologist.
He has held positions at Best Foods, Pillsbury, and Cargill, where he retired in 2006 as senior corporate microbiologist. Today he continues to work on several major writing projects as a part-time Cargill employee and as secretariat for a new global initiative, the Safe Supply of Affordable Food Everywhere, Inc.
Renate Sperber was born in 1938 in Breslau, Germany. Her extended, freethinking family members became refugees after losing everything in World War II. She earned a business school degree in Sulingen, Germany, and emigrated to the United States in 1961. A successful office manager in Madison, she met William Sperber in 1963 at Rennebohm Drug Store, where they both worked part time to earn extra money.
He has held positions at Best Foods, Pillsbury, and Cargill, where he retired in 2006 as senior corporate microbiologist. Today he continues to work on several major writing projects as a part-time Cargill employee and as secretariat for a new global initiative, the Safe Supply of Affordable Food Everywhere, Inc.
Renate Sperber was born in 1938 in Breslau, Germany. Her extended, freethinking family members became refugees after losing everything in World War II. She earned a business school degree in Sulingen, Germany, and emigrated to the United States in 1961. A successful office manager in Madison, she met William Sperber in 1963 at Rennebohm Drug Store, where they both worked part time to earn extra money.
“On our first date, February 19, 1963, we saw the movie West Side Story at the Middleton Theater,” recalls William. “We married on April 13, 1963, later adopting two infant children.”
After further education, Renate had a long career as a medical coder for a large hospital and clinic. In retirement, she enjoys travel, gardening, reading, and music.
“We’ve been thinking about establishing this scholarship for years,” says William. “It has always been our dream to contribute to the university to sustain opportunities for the untold generations of deserving students that will follow us.”
— Tracey Rockhill ’87
After further education, Renate had a long career as a medical coder for a large hospital and clinic. In retirement, she enjoys travel, gardening, reading, and music.
“We’ve been thinking about establishing this scholarship for years,” says William. “It has always been our dream to contribute to the university to sustain opportunities for the untold generations of deserving students that will follow us.”
— Tracey Rockhill ’87
