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Believe it or not, the fountain on Library Mall has been officially called the Hagenah Fountain since its installation in 1958. William Hagenah 1903, LLB1905 was a corporate executive, donor, and board chair for the UW Foundation. He was one of the alumni leaders who first dreamed of creating a central campus green on Library Mall (a vision that many have shared, but one that has been realized only sporadically; Alumni Park, which opened in 2017, is part of that same dream). Hagenah donated the funds that built the fountain, and he chose the words inscribed on it: “Teachers and books are the springs from which flow the waters of knowledge.” But the water feature’s popular name has pretty much always been “Library Mall Fountain.” Though Hagenah made this campus landmark possible, very few people remember his connection to it.

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