University of Wisconson Stout | Wisconsin's Polytechnic University

Winter Carnival 1959, Kathy Wigdahl was the Freshman Class candidate for Queen. Richard (Andy) Anderson, a Sig Tau, was in the front row of Harvey Hall and bet his frat brothers he could get a date with the "Queen". June 2, 2012, it will be 50 years of marriage. We have two children, Jeff Anderson and Jodi Dotseth, and three "Super" grandkids - Hunter, Wyatt, and Kennedy.
Inserted: 2/22/2012

We met at the Methodist Church on Wilson Ave. while we were in The Wesley Club on campus during 1959-1960. The club met every Sunday night for supper. We also had a choir; Glenn and I accompanied the choir. Our first official date was Feb. 29, 1960...Sadie Hawkins Day...we went to a movie. We were married in 1963.
Inserted: 2/27/2012

I (Joe) was painting a second floor window frame near campus. I whistled at this co-ed walking by on the side walk. I went about my business of painting. A little later, I looked in the window and there she was standing inside watching me paint. Been together ever since. Guess she answered my call.
Inserted: 10/2/2007

Wes and I met in Sheboygan for teachers' convention. I was with my Stout friend Kay Boldt. Wes and I found out we were both students at Stout. Our first date was a movie starring Liz Taylor riding a horse without much female support...I was so embarrassed! We had many nights in front of Tainter Hall playing "button button" here comes the house mother. We had to get in the dorm before hours. Now 49 years later, there are no hours! Did anyone sign me in or out?
Inserted: 3/19/2012

We met the first weekend of our freshmen year at the Sunday night supper put on by the Wesley Foundation. We started dating during our sophomore year. We enjoyed most of the campus activity weekends of our junior year. We became engaged our senior year and married two weeks after graduation. Our first jobs were teaching in Port Huron, MI. After three years, we moved back to WI. We raised four children. One on them, Greg and his wife are Stout graduates. We have 9 grandchildren.
Inserted: 10/2/2007

We met in the Wesley Center when I was a freshmen and Alan took care of me for two years before he graduated. I lived in Tainter Hall and he lived in an apartment on the other side of campus. Neither of us had a car, as was typical in those days. He would come and get me on Sundays and walk me to church, which was near his apartment. He kept close eye on me between classes. He was always there! After a year teaching he was back to get his Masters and we were married over Christmas break. We just celebrated our 40th anniversary. It has been a good life.
Inserted: 10/2/2007

Tom was vice-president of Student Government and Joyce was secretary - that was the beginning!
Inserted: 5/10/2012

Paul and Phyllis met at a Saturday Dancing Class taught by Dr. Lorna S. Lengfeld, Advisor of the International Relation Club at Stout. The class met at various places on campus. However, on a Saturday afternoon, in the early fall of 1962-63, the class was held at the ballroom of the student union. At the beginning of each meeting, students introduced themselves to the class. Class members must exchange partners after each new step during the practice; however, the students were allowed to choose his/her own partner at the last dance. When Dr. Lengfeld announced that it was the last dance of that class, Paul came over and asked Phyllis to dance cha-cha-cha with him. It was love at the first sight, after the class, Paul asked Phyllis to join him and other friends for a cup of tea at the student union, Phyllis accepted the invitation. During the conversations, they learned a little bit about each other. Phyllis was a Dietetic Major and Paul was a Voc. Tech. Major. After the first meeting, besides seeing each other in the dance class, and sometimes in the library, they talked a lot on the phone, but were not going out till Paul invited Phyllis to his Senior Prom in the spring of 1964. They were married in December 1965 and moved to Racine, Wisconsin in June 1966. They made their home in Racine since then. Paul and Phyllis retired in 1999. They have 4 grown children, Peter (Jennifer) is a Graphic Design Instructor at GTC, Philip (Jeanette) is a software Engineer with ATT, Thomas (Kelly) is a Language Specialist in the military, and Mary (Jeffrey) is a middle school Special Ed teacher with the Oak Creek-Franklin school district. Paul and Phyllis have 8 grandchildren, 4 boys and 4 girls. The oldest is 18 and a freshman at UWM and the youngest is 4. Paul and Phyllis enjoy traveling in the US and abroad.
Inserted: 2/11/2008

A frugal courtship....we flirted over the back of a booth in a pizza parlor; came home from Pete's together; then went for a drive to the Devil's Punch Bowl. He serenaded me on the riverbank. He gave me a 'placeholder' engagement ring (a cigar band) after a hot-from-the-oven breakfast roll at the Dew Drop Inn. Wonderful memories.
Inserted: 2/22/2012

Our first date was a picnic at the local park. We went to the grocery store and bought two steaks, can of potatoes, and a can of green beans. We picked up branches in the park and cooked it all over a great smelling fire. It was fun, easy, and the beginning of many years of picnics in the park. We were poor, so we could not afford a restaurant.
Inserted: 5/10/2012

Homecoming 1965! 2:00 AM. Tony was walking down 6th Street on his way home after a night of celebration. MaryAnn and a few roommates decided to invite the first guy into our house that liked "oatmeal" - and it was Tony - the rest is history. We were married August 12, 1967 - 4o yrs ago!
Inserted: 4/23/2008

One Sunday morning I was getting ready & one of my roommates (FOB's) Jim Polarski asked where I was going. I said to church & he asked to go along. Jim also asked if Barb could come too & then was it OK if her roommate came too! I said sure & off we went. The roommate was Jan Senn, an Alpha Sig from Monroe. The four of us went for Sunday dinner at the hotel & the rest is history. Jan & I were married in 1965 & spent our senior year living above Mrs. Berg (Berg Chevrolet/Olds) in her beautiful home on the lake. (Jan's trophy for winning the Powder Puff ice race at Winter Carnival was displayed at the Flame for several years) From Menomonie we moved to Pontiac Michigan, then to Duluth Minnesota & then to Madison. Did we live happily everafter? Well, not exactly, but we have three wonderful kids(one Stout grad) & nine even more wonderful grandchildren. We have a cabin on Lake Namakagon in Bayfield County & live in the only Waunakee in the world. Life is good! John Wischhoff
Inserted: 2/7/2008

One day I was washing my mustang at a filling station in Viroqua, Wisconsin when I overheard this gentleman telling the attendant that he had to drive all the way to Menomonie, Wisconsin to take his daughter back to college at Stout. I mentioned to him that I was heading that way myself shortly and his daughter was welcome to ride back with me. He gladly accepted my offer and little did he know that I was his future son-in-law. Dianne is an Alpha Phi and I am a Chi Lambda. We have been married for 38 plus years and have a son Kevin and a daughter Jill. They both graduated from the University of Iowa and are married but no grandchildren as of yet. Dianne taught High School for many years and I recently retired from John Deere with nearly 40 years of service.
Inserted: 10/8/2007

In the fall of 1963, fate intervened and placed us, a Montana city boy and a Wisconsin farm girl next to each other in a freshmen English literature class taught by Richard Friedrich. Playing “footsy” in the classroom and dating in October let to “going steady” in November, when we parted for an early Thanksgiving break due to the assassination of President Kennedy. By sping of 1964 we were informally engaged, with an engagement ring appearing the following March. Since the courting car was a 1937 Plymouth that was in storage for the winter, the engagement didn’t officially happen until the weather broke enough to get a car into the local park. After a LONG wait, to comply with the parental request to finish our degrees, we were married June 10, 1967, exactly one week after graduation. Following a year in graduate school in Rolla, Missouri, Mahlon joined Sperry Univac in the St. Paul, MN area where he spent all of his working years in the computer business. Jean was a stay at home mom for a number of years and then was employed by the University of Minnesota Extension Service for 16 years. We retired in 2000 and returned to Mahlon’s home state, where we built a retirement home up in the mountains near Bigfork, MT. The love story has continued through the years and it survives and flourishes. Now, finally able to be together 24/7, we are fulfilling our teenage dreams of 1963, when we thought our friends in the married student housing, even thought they were in Quonset buildings, were the luckiest people on earth.
Inserted: 10/2/2007

We met the beginning of our freshman year while waiting in line to get our books. And have been together ever since.
Inserted: 10/8/2007

We’ll be married 39 years this summer. It was cheaper to be married than single when we fell in love- so we married after out junior year in 1967 and lived on North 2nd Street in a beautiful old house on a bluff over looking the river. Now- it’s a parking lot! Our best friends are fellow Stout grads - Joan and Paul Sawyer. We now live in New Delhi, India where Ken manages Woodward Governor.
Inserted: 10/2/2007

We met during Winter Carnival 1964. Art is a Chi Lambda and Karen is an Alpha Phi and we have such fond memories of friends and activities during our years at Stout. We married in August 1968 following graduation. Art taught Ind. Arts and coached golf for 34 years in Columbia Heights, MN and Karen taught Home. Ec. and Sp. Ed. for 34 years in Robbinsdale, MN. We retired 5 yrs. ago. We have two married daughters and 3 granddaughters.
Inserted: 10/5/2007

Chi Lambda fraternity and Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority had a pledge exchange in the early spring of 1967. Pledges had to work for the actives and Ken made Mary and another pledge wash his car. A few weeks later they went to see the movie “Dr. Zhivago.” Ken and Mary were married in 1969 and are still married. They have two grown children and a granddaughter. Mary taught Family and Consumer Education for 22½ years and Ken taught Technical Education for 34 years; both taught in Sheboygan, Wisconsin school district. Kan and Mary are now retired and have moved to the village of Forestville in Door County, Wisconsin where they are very happy. Ken and Mary appreciate the education they got at UW-Stout and the opportunities, friends, and happiness it has provided for them.
Inserted: 10/4/2007