Campus News - Philanthropy

Stieber Scholarship honors pharmacy legacy, ties to community.

For the Stieber family, working together to create a healthy community has become a way of life. Jerome Stieber ’54 was a junior in high school when he landed a job building the morning furnace fire and doing odd jobs at Irvin Simonson’s pharmacy in Marathon — population then 923 — just west of Wausau, Wisconsin. With encouragement from Simonson, Stieber developed an interest in pharmacy. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at UW-Marathon County for pre-pharmacy studies, then transferred to the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy for his bachelor’s degree. He financed his own education and worked during the summer alongside pharmacist preceptor Ovid Halmstad, who had purchased the Marathon pharmacy from Simonson.

Stieber began building a family legacy in health care when he met and married Mary Brunner of Shawano, Wisconsin, who had graduated as a registered nurse from St. Mary’s Nursing School in Wausau in 1955. They returned to Marathon to be close to Stieber’s ailing father and purchased Halmstad’s pharmacy, renaming it Stieber Drugs. In time, the Stiebers had five children, all of whom were expected to help in the store. It was there that they learned the value of taking care of each other and their community.

The Stiebers consider themselves a “pharmacy family,” and their philanthropic focus is on supporting students. They have established the Stieber Family Scholarship Fund to benefit PharmD students who are working their way through school, just as Jerome Stieber did.

“We feel that when you work, you organize your time better and are more apt to remain in college,” says Mary Stieber. “The profession used to be learned by children working with their parents, but you don’t find many families with pharmacies anymore.”

The Stiebers are delighted that all five children have degrees from the University of Wisconsin System — one in food science, two in nursing, and two in pharmacy.

“When I was informed that my parents were considering making this gift, I was absolutely thrilled,” says their son Brian Stieber ’81. “It’s a great way to provide an ongoing remembrance for what the profession of pharmacy has meant to our family, and for the tremendous education we received at [the School of Pharmacy].”

The Stiebers’ daughter Beth Martin ’90, MS’03, PhD’06 is an assistant professor at the UW School of Pharmacy. Martin says she’s pleased that the first student named as a Stieber Scholar was Jaclyn Stelter of Mukwonago, Wisconsin. “Jacki’s professional involvement has been in the pharmacy fraternity, Kappa Psi, the same fraternity my father was active in as a pharmacy student, and she has been working a significant number of hours to support herself through pharmacy school, another thing she has in common with my father,” says Martin. “Because of her personal and professional values, she was a great fit for the first Stieber Family Scholarship award.”

In turn, Stelter says, “I am extremely honored to have been chosen as the first recipient of this scholarship. Getting through pharmacy school has not been easy, and with school work and working to help pay the bills, this scholarship will allow me to focus more on my fourth-year clerkship experiences.”

“Student support is a top priority,” says Jeanette Roberts, the school’s dean. “We are grateful that pharmacy families like the Stiebers are leading the way.”

— Sue Zyhowski

From one champion to another ... and another ... and another.
High up on the Camp Randall Stadium façade, since 2006, red letters on a permanent white banner have read simply, “80 Schreiner.” They honor Dave Schreiner — a Lancaster, Wisconsin, native; two-time Badger All-American; and Detroit Lion NFL draft choice. His name and number now stand watch over raucous football games and hushed tranquility.

Some fans may know of Schreiner’s record-setting three touchdown catches in one quarter as a member of the famed 1942 Badgers. Others may know that Lieutenant David Nathan Schreiner ’43 was killed in June 1945 on Okinawa in the closing days of World War II.

Very few people know, however, that for the past sixty years, the Schreiner family has helped more than fifty student athletes attend UW-Madison. Even more important, there are Badgers not yet born who will have the same opportunity to experience the thrill of playing on the Camp Randall turf and the same privilege to earn a UW-Madison education. The opportunities are made possible by the Schreiner Scholarship Fund, an endowed scholarship established in 1947 in Schreiner’s memory by his parents, Anna and Herbert Schreiner, with just $10,000.

The first Schreiner scholarship was awarded in 1948 to Tom Bennett ’49, MS’56. “Things were tough in those days. It really helped,” says Bennett, who went on to become a UW-Madison track, golf, and freshman football coach, as well as an assistant professor. He was inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.

Other past recipients include Erasmus James x’05, John Stocco ’06, and Ron Dayne x’03. The 2007 scholarship recipient was junior Jaevery McFadden.

Endowments are powerful and enduring. During just the past fifteen years, the Schreiner-Hoskins Scholarship Fund — so named in 1990 by the surviving family members — has awarded more than $200,000 in scholarships and has grown to nearly $500,000. A portion of the investment income from the fund will continue to provide football scholarships, with another portion allocated to keep the fund growing. Today, the annual spendable income is just over $18,000, or nearly twice the amount that originally established the fund.

Prudent investing and spending will ensure that the Badgers of tomorrow will get their turn to continue the legacy of a true champion.

— Merry Anderson