Friends of MCW Marks 55 Years of Service

In 1969, an act of generosity benefiting new mothers at the former Milwaukee County General Hospital helped launch a mission to support the Medical College of Wisconsin in its formative years – a mission that continues to this day as the Friends of MCW.

At the time, the institution that would eventually become MCW had recently separated from Marquette University and was operating as the Marquette School of Medicine. The school’s leadership, research and clinical faculty, along with many civic boosters, saw the value in supporting an institution in Milwaukee that would train physicians and treat patients – but its future was by no means certain.

In a 2015 interview with MCW Chief Historian Richard N. (Dick) Katschke, an early leader of the Friends, Jane Klockman, recalled how a group of spouses (at the time, all women) of department chairs and section chiefs met with a parliamentarian for guidance about how to establish an auxiliary organization to raise money and awareness for the struggling medical school.

Klockman recollected that she shared the organizational documents with then Medical School Dean Gerald Kerrigan, MD, who “read it and said, ‘you could run General Motors with this.’ That was the genesis of starting the Friends, which morphed and became far more inclusive and open – and has done great things,” she said.

(Pictured right: Members of the Friends of MCW with Ella Fitzgerald, 1976)

As Klockman noted, that early group of women were among the “visionaries” who would go on to help ensure that MCW evolved into the nationally regarded institution it is today.

One of their first projects was volunteering to escort patients and staffing an information desk in the Newborn Nursery at the Milwaukee County Hospital, which was served by the medical school’s clinician faculty members and residents. They also took photographs of the babies in the nursery with a Polaroid camera to present to new mothers and their families, free of charge.

Throughout the 1970s, the auxiliary organization would go on to undertake projects that would generate MCW’s earliest philanthropic support – including events that featured appearances by nationally known celebrities such as Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Chita Rivera, Bob Newhart and John Denver.

Those events helped raise more than $140,000 (approximately $600,000 in today’s dollars) for a fund for low-interest student loans – establishing the Friends as an important source of support for medical students, graduate students and residents working at the Milwaukee County General Hospital and what is now the Zablocki VA Medical Center.

Several new Friends’ events followed, including an annual An Evening with Friends gala and an annual chili fundraiser. The Friends established an endowment in the 1990-91 academic year to provide sustainability of funding for future academic scholarships and service awards.

In 1999, the highly successful Friends Café, a coffee and gift shop, opened in the newly built Health Research Center on the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center campus. Under the direction of longtime Friends member Vera Wilson and many others, the Friends’ Café helped raise $1.2 million to support students and research at MCW before it closed in 2015.

Friends Cafe, 2015

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Friends also held annual raffles and periodic one- or two-day fundraisers at MCW that were well-supported by members of the faculty and staff. Currently, Friends continues to support snacks provided to new MCW students at their orientation.

Jan Lennon recalls the Friends as not only an organization that took on “big projects” to advance the growing education and research programs of MCW, but also as fostering a supportive environment for members. She was encouraged in her own involvement with the Friends by Klockman and other Friends’ founders.

“We supported each other,” Lennon says. “We laughed, we had fun, we did whatever we had to do to get through. The fact that we were able to put on these wonderful events and be successful was because we made it collaborative. . .we brought people together.”

“Those were the things that gave us a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves,” she adds.

Today, the Friends of MCW continues its work and is open to a new generation of leaders. Lennon’s daughter-in-law, Martha Lennon, serves as treasurer, and former MCW employee Gail Schemberger is secretary. Lennon serves as vice-president and endowment chairperson, and Margaret Haagensen, a local bank officer, serves as the president and leader of Friends. The remainder of the Friends board comprises MCW faculty, individuals with a close association to MCW and community volunteers who are dedicated to the Friends mission.

Haagensen got involved with the Friends while volunteering for Women for MACC (Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer) after losing a daughter to pediatric cancer and meeting Jan. Haagensen notes that she met MCW clinicians, oncologists and residents while her daughter was undergoing treatment, and was struck by their professionalism and compassion as her daughter went through treatment. Children’s Wisconsin was expanding and had created a brain tumor support team comprising an oncologist, researcher and clinician – all faculty members of MCW – who provided care throughout her daughter’s treatment.

“It really made me appreciate what a critical clinical and research resource we have in our community and in the state,” Haagensen says, noting the robustness of MCW’s School of Graduate Studies, creation of the MCW School of Pharmacy and the expansion of MCW’s School of Medicine campuses in Green Bay and Central Wisconsin.

(Pictured left: Ginny Bolger (left) and Patricia Dunn (right) at a student snack day in 1997)

“Because I experienced what a teaching hospital is and what a difference it makes to the treatment and the information that’s shared with parents and patients, I’m inspired and honored to support MCW students in memory of my daughter, my cousin who was a researcher at MCW and by Jan’s passion for MCW,” Haagenson adds.

The Friends of MCW is reexamining its mission and efforts in light of the difficulties all nonprofits faced raising funds during COVID-19 and since then. Haagensen notes that strategic planning discussions are beginning now to help determine “what our future looks like and how we can engage not just our current membership, but also how we can bring in new members.”

“What won’t change,” says Haagensen, “is Friends’ commitment to supporting awards for academic excellence and laudable service opportunities for students enrolled in every MCW school.”

55 Years of Support

Since 1969, the many contributions of the Friends of MCW are difficult to gauge in total, but an active legacy is the more than $1.4 million in financial contributions that continue to support students directly. In the last fiscal year, the work of the Friends past and present provided $33,000 in scholarship awards for students in MCW’s medical, pharmacy and graduate schools; support for student research projects; service awards; an award recognizing excellence in preparing and defending a dissertation; and awards for students obtaining a master’s degree in public health

– Michael J. Mathias