WAUKESHA – Barbara Bache-Wiig, who had been plying her profession for some years before she audited her first class at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha in 1973, was amazed when she received the call informing her she had been selected the school’s outstanding alum for 2008. She responded, “I love this place – it’s just wonderful!”

On May 22, she will be honored at the annual Honors & Degree ceremony to be held at 7 p.m. in the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, located in the Fine Arts Center on campus at 1500 N. University Dr., Waukesha.

Each year, the Friends & Alumni of UWW, Inc., presents the award to an alumna/us with at least 10 years distance from the campus and outstanding personal, professional, or volunteer accomplishments. In Bache-Wiig’s case, the distance guideline was waived in favor of duration.

Long before UW-Waukesha opened its doors in 1966, the Minnesota native earned both BS and MS degrees from the University of Minnesota in speech language pathology with a minor in reading. She also attended the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago, where she studied child and family development.

She moved to Wisconsin when her husband, Bob, took a position with the Falk Corporation in 1948. At first, Bache-Wiig sought employment with Milwaukee Public Schools but was rejected “because I was a married woman.” The Milwaukee State Teachers College (later to become the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), where she also took courses, held no such prejudice and hired her to work part time in the reading clinic and part time in the speech clinic. As a Waukesha resident, however, she soon found it more convenient to practice closer to home.

Since she and her husband adopted three of their four children, she had gone through the administrative and emotional ordeal and thus discovered an educational need in the local community. In 1965, she founded a program, Adoption Insights, through the YWCA and the Mental Health Association. Waukesha Area Technical College (WCTC) later took over the program. Through her work with it, however, she discovered another unmet need, and she started another program, Infertility Insights, in conjunction with WCTC and the Women’s Health Center at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Several UW-Waukesha faculty made guest presentations at her Insights programs.

A recommendation from a friend, Maxine Leenhouts, brought her to the fledgling UW campus on the hill, where she indulged herself. “It’s a luxury. I’m taking classes for fun!” she explained, as wide-eyed students listened to her answer professors’ first-day inquiries.  For more than 30 years, she’s been enrolling in classes – some credit, some audit, some continuing education, but all enthusiastically. Most have been in English, art, music, psychology, and women’s studies.

Her studies led to a new career – as a poet. A group of returning learners enrolled in Phil Zweifel’s continuing education workshop on writing poetry in 1997 formed “The Poetry People,” so dubbed by Bache-Wiig and Bonita Engen. Even now, the dozen or more poets participate each semester, practicing their skills and maintaining ties. They also do readings at local venues, including the campus. One of Bache-Wiig’s poems in which she describes the beauty of May appears in this year’s UW-Waukesha student literary publication, The Windy Hill Review.

Several professors she fondly recalls as particularly influential include Bob Calhoun, who taught English, and John Knight, who taught philosophy, both of Waukesha; and Jane Ewens, North Lake, and Bob Bermant, Hartland, both who taught psychology. None was more so, though, than Phil Zweifel, Waukesha, an associate professor of English and now associate dean of the campus. “He is bright, kind, and insightful, as he creates a warm, alert ambience that works well for all of us,” she says, remembering how he allowed her leeway to regain her voice after she had suffered a stroke.  

Bache-Wiig, who has gained computer skills through the patient tutoring of UW-Waukesha’s computer center guru, David Weber, also appreciates “the amazing help from the campus librarians.” She considers UW-Waukesha “a great place – a jewel in a friendly setting,” she says.

This perpetual student may never distance herself from the campus, but she is outstanding in so many ways!

UW-Waukesha has the largest enrollment among the 13 freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses, offering associate of arts & science degrees and the best start on a college degree and unlimited career opportunities. For information about programs, admission or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at 888-2UW-WAUK (888-289-9285) or visit the Web at waukesha.uwc.edu.

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