WAUKESHA – On July 31, Don Bracco will celebrate two new beginnings: his retirement as director of the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha Continuing Education/Outreach Program and the wedding of his only daughter – the first coming after 30 years, the latter after 25. He has spent his adult life serving the military and the university.
The son of an itinerant business troubleshooter, Bracco was born in Freeport, IL, lived in various towns in Great Lakes states, and graduated from high school and college in LaCrosse, WI. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science in teaching, both with highest honors, from his local UW, and finished in 1968.
The US was engaged in war in VietNam then, and the draft was looming. He joined the Army in 1969 and was sent to officer candidate school, where he was trained as a combat engineer and electronic warfare officer. Drawing on his other educational credentials, the Army assigned him to teach and coordinate curriculum at the Intelligence School at Fort Devens, MA, Reserve Training Area.
When he returned to Wisconsin in 1972, he enrolled in the doctoral program at UW-Madison, seeking a degree in British history with a minor in ancient history. By 1974, he had not completed a dissertation yet but was feeling the financial pinch. So he checked out the job board and found the Department of Community Resource Development in the Cooperative Extension was looking for an agent in its Waukesha office. Waukesha was one of the communities he knew from his youth, and the fit seemed comfortable.
As the county’s continuing education agent, he developed and managed the continuing education program and served as an instructor, teaching such subjects as constitutional law, history and occasionally, ancient religions. The Cooperative Extension awarded him the rank of Associate Professor with tenure, which he still holds – the last remaining tenured faculty in UW Cooperative Extension to simultaneously hold an academic staff position in the UW Colleges.
For a time, he maintained offices in both the Court House and on the UW-Waukesha campus but in 1982 moved into a single office at the university, from which he handled general administrative and personnel duties – creating courses to fit community needs, staffing them with capable faculty, and publicizing their schedules.
He remained in the Army Reserves for 22 years, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and spending his summers in the front of Army classrooms or working in the Pentagon. He published several articles on training and adult education. In 1990-91 during the mobilization for Desert Storm, he was called to the Pentagon as a strategic intelligence officer.
Reflecting on his years in continuing education, he comments, “This has been my dream job.” He wanted to be affiliated with education, and he succeeded. “There have not been very many lows,” he adds.
After his daughter’s wedding, Bracco expects to relax awhile, draw some deep breaths, take up golf. After some time elapses, he would consider re-entering the workforce in a part-time capacity.
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