Pictured with the Morgridges is the Morgridge Chair in Reading and Literacy, Gay Ivey, right, who joined the School of Education faculty in 2012. Her research focuses on the development of productive and motivating classrooms for struggling young adolescent readers. Associate Professor Shanan Peters, left, was named Morgridge Chair of Geoscience in 2012. His work concentrates on better understanding the evolution of life and the environment through the innovative use of geoinformatics to explore the geologic record.
“Both John and Tashia have this view that they’ve been fortunate—not just because of their own personal skills, but that life has been good to them—and they should give back. Their mission has been to make life better for others, and that’s what they’ve done.”
Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
Life has been good to John (’55 BBA) and Tashia (’55 BSE) Morgridge. For that they are grateful. This gratitude is seen in their desire to make life better for others. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been the fortunate recipient of much of this gratitude. Most recently, they have endowed two professorships— one in the School of Education and a second in the Department of Geoscience.
The Tashia F. Morgridge Chair in Reading and Literacy supports an internationally recognized full-time faculty member with a vision for reading education.
In the Department of Geoscience, the Dean L. Morgridge Chair of Geoscience honors John’s brother, Dean Morgridge, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from the UW-Madison in 1953 and 1955, respectively.
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