Coincidences prompt couple’s philanthropy

Sue Zyhowski

Joanne Howard grew up in Chicago, but she watched future Heisman trophy winner Alan Ameche and the Badgers play Big Ten football on television.

“We visited the campus, and I felt totally comfortable,” says Howard. So she applied to UW–Madison and was accepted. “I may have picked Wisconsin with insufficient data, but I would choose it again today,” she adds.

Howard loved the university but soon was disenchanted with her math major. She pored over the academic catalogs in Bascom Hall, listening for her calling, waiting for a word to jump off the page, and there it was: business.

“I didn’t know there was such a thing as a School of Business or accounting or economics or finance,” says Howard. “Business is applied math, so it was a perfect fit.”

Howard met her husband, Roy, when he was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois. When they were engaged, the Navy transferred Roy from the USS Saratoga in the Mediterranean to, of all places, Madison. After discharge from the Navy, Roy enrolled at the university and graduated in 1964. The couple then left Madison. When they returned for Homecoming in 1965, the Howards could feel the tension of the Vietnam War protests. They feared the Wisconsin they knew was becoming part of their past.

The Howards spent the next years establishing careers and their family in Woodside, Calif. With extended families in Illinois and New York, there was no compelling reason to visit UW–Madison.

Then, a string of events, chance meetings and coincidences drew the Howards back to Madison.

“I was inspired when Donna Shalala became chancellor,” says Joanne. “I already knew Donna from a women’s leadership group, and I wrote her a letter, asking that she make it a priority to take the Badgers back to the Rose Bowl.” Shalala responded, saying she would.

Also, Joanne began working for RCM, one of the investment managers for the UW Foundation. She struck up a friendship with Susan Schaffer, who was involved with the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Joanne soon learned that the School of Business was constructing a new home, Grainger Hall.

“We gave our first gift to Grainger Hall,” says Joanne. “Our education was a great background for our careers, so it was totally logical.”

The couple returned to campus in 1992 and has been back two or three times a year since that time.

“I love it,” says Joanne. “I feel like I’m 20 years old when I’m on campus.

“I wanted to go to a big university to get exposure to different disciplines, and that is the beauty of UW–Madison,” she adds. “It is not only the degree you receive, it is the exposure to a broader environment. Life is much more than business.”

Since that first gift to the School of Business, Joanne and Roy have supported such areas as a diamond for women’s softball, a technology-rich auditorium, the marching band and prostate cancer research. The Howards’ generosity has transformed people, programs and the university’s physical appearance.

“Different things speak to us at different times in our lives,” says Joanne. “It is our desire and joy to direct our philanthropy in ways that are meaningful to us. Our gifts are targeted to where we see excellence at UW–Madison — and there is excellence in so many different areas.”