Jennifer Leaver
Tommy Thompson comes by his love and support of the University of Wisconsin honestly. He says attending college here (BA, 1963: law degree, 1966) changed his life and opened the doors that led him to four terms as Wisconsin governor and to a stint in Washington, D.C., as secretary of Health and Human Services for President George W. Bush.
“I don’t care who you are: Going to a university transforms you,” he says with characteristic gusto. “The stimulus, the intellectual capacity that you interact with — it makes you a whole different person. It gives you opportunity and the ability to do just about anything.”
At the spring commencement on May 13, UW-Madison will grant Thompson an honorary degree for meritorious activity “as a dedicated promoter of the Wisconsin Idea and the use of government to enhance the lives of its citizens.” He’ll speak and probably tell a classic story of education’s liberating power.
His own.
The son of a hardworking grocer, Thompson grew up in small-town Elroy in Juneau County. “I was stocking groceries and cleaning eggs. Everybody in the family worked there,” he recalls. The Madison campus was another world, with an enrollment 12 times larger than tiny Elroy’s population.
“Going to Madison was not just a big deal for him and his family — the whole town took pride in it,” says his former aide Bill McCoshen.
Decades later, Thompson is still thankful for the experience. “The university was a tremendous part of my transformation,” he says.
