Badgers Who Lift Others
On Friday, Oct. 23, the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association honored seven individuals with the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award and Distinguished Service Award. The celebration took place at Union South. Honorees included business leaders, philanthropists, and public servants whose work extends well beyond campus.
“These awards are among the highest honors at UW–Madison,” said Sarah Schutt, chief alumni officer and executive director of the Wisconsin Alumni Association. She added that the honorees “embody the Wisconsin idea in action.” Schutt and Alisa Robertson ’94, MBA’03, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, presented the awards, along with interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots.
The Distinguished Alumni Award has recognized accomplished UW–Madison graduates since 1936. The Distinguished Service Award honors transformational generosity and extraordinary volunteer leadership.
Two of this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award recipients, Stephen H. Marcus ’57 and Jay Smith ’63, led Wisconsin businesses to leadership in their industries, and both credited the university for their success.
Marcus earned an accounting degree at UW–Madison, then went on to law school, military service, and a stint with a San Francisco real estate developer. In 1962, his father, Ben Marcus, persuaded him to come home to Marcus Corporation, which Ben had founded in 1935. Stephen rose to president, CEO, and chairman, helping build the company into a national leader in entertainment and hospitality. Today it owns or operates 975 movie screens in 17 states and 17 hotels and resorts in eight states.
Marcus’s message to the audience was simple: “Expect things to change.” He said UW–Madison helps young people learn to adapt to that change. He thanked his three sons and nine grandchildren and credited his parents’ insistence on education. “Education opens doors,” he said.
Smith, an economics graduate, led Fordem Company as president from a small snack food packaging business to a market leader in medical packaging. He negotiated the sale of the company to Dickinson Robinson Group in the 1980s and went on to manage its operations around the world. In 1999, he and his two children, Jason Smith and Brynna Smith London, acquired Teel Plastics, now an advanced manufacturing company with four facilities in Baraboo. As a member and president of the UW System Board of Regents, he championed partnerships between higher education and industry.
Smith asked his friend and fellow former regent David Walsh ’65 to join him for his remarks. Walsh recalled Smith’s leadership of a statewide economic summit in the early 2000s that drew about a thousand business, labor, government, and education leaders, far more than the 200 to 300 expected. Smith’s message: “Find someone who sees things differently than you do and start the conversation.” Smith also thanked his wife, Pat ’63, whom he met on campus.
The third Distinguished Alumni honoree, Laura Cha ’72, was unable to attend. Cha arrived at UW–Madison from Hong Kong in 1968 and majored in French, with a minor in European history. She went on to become an international leader in finance and public policy, advising multinational companies including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, serving as deputy chair of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, and becoming the first woman to chair Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited.
Two couples were recognized with the Distinguished Service Award. For Elzie ’65 and Deborah Higginbottom, the honor reflects a shared commitment to opening doors for others. Elzie arrived at UW–Madison on a track scholarship and became a three-time Big Ten champion and record-setting sprinter. After encouragement from his UW mentors, he chose a real estate internship over a national track team tryout and became the first African American professional hired by Baird & Warner in Chicago. He later helped Black families secure housing in neighborhoods long closed to them. The couple has supported scholarships and programs for young people in Chicago and at UW–Madison.
Deborah called the award a “full-circle moment”: decades after Elzie worked construction on a campus residence hall, their youngest son moved into that same residence hall as a freshman. “A young person should not have to possess an exceptional talent to be given an extraordinary opportunity,” she said.
The other Distinguished Service Award recipients, Sheldon ’51, LLB’53 and Marianne x’54 Lubar, were unable to attend. The couple met on campus, when Marianne was a 17-year-old freshman and Sheldon worked in her residence hall’s dining facilities. They married in 1952 and raised four children. Over more than seven decades, they have invested in libraries, museums, the performing arts, and universities. Their support has strengthened UW–Madison’s business, law, and computer sciences programs and helped establish the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions. Sheldon also served nine years on the UW System Board of Regents, including a term as president.
Interim Chancellor Eric M. Wilcots, who announced the Distinguished Service Award recipients, noted that the university’s “beneficent influence” flows both ways between campus and the people of Wisconsin. He cited UW alumna Vel Phillips LLB’51 and her timeless question, “What have you done today that’s good?” as a measure for this year’s honorees.
Robertson agreed, saying the recipients are an inspiration. “These stories are shining examples to future generations of Badgers of how the Wisconsin Idea can be put to work,” she said.
