Home : Volume 31 : Spring 2005 :
GIFT REPORT 2005: Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Building

Artist's concept of the new Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Building (32K JPG)

John Meyer (BSChE '56) feels strongly about ensuring that UW-Madison engineers — both students and faculty — have up-to-date facilities and technologies at their disposal. And though he is a chemical engineering alumnus, he recently donated $100,000 toward the new Mechanical Engineering Building. "Bringing this campus and Madison landmark up to 21st-century standards is a notable effort," says Meyer. "I recall several ME labs in that building as part of the ChE program 50 years ago — and it seemed old then."

Bob and Marilyn Olson have goals similar to Meyer's. Of their recent $1 million gift to the college, $500,000 will fund a student lecture hall and a conference room in the new ME/IE Building. Olson (BSME '60) spent "a big bunch" of his four undergraduate years in the ME Building. "Where is it more appropriate than to be supportive of the path that allowed me to get a quality education?" he says. If UW-Madison is going to be a leader in engineering education, the new building has to happen: "We have a worldwide challenge on our hands, in terms of remaining competitive, and we just have to support these things that can help us do that," he says. Olson, who also has an MBA from UW-Madison, is a native of Monroe, Wisconsin. The retired executive of Little Rapids Corp., Green Bay, lives in Waupaca, Wisconsin, and Bonita Springs, Florida.

Richard Anderson (BSME '76) agrees. "I want to see the university continue to keep pace with what's going on in the rest of the world, and new facilities are something they need, especially for undergraduates," he says. President of Wheel to Wheel Inc., an automotive supplier, Anderson has donated $100,000 to fund a dynamometer test cell in the new building. (A dynamometer is a device that places a load on an engine and measures the engine's performance.) He, too, views his gift as a return on the college's investment in him. "I attribute a large part of my current success to the education I got at the University of Wisconsin," says Anderson. "It's a high-quality school."

Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu

Date last modified: Wednesday, 25-May-2005 10:30:05 CDT
Date created: 25-May-2005

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