UW-Whitewater celebrates 145th anniversary with Founders Day awards

April 17, 2013

A beloved campus leader and five alumni will be honored this spring for their professional achievements as the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater celebrates Founders Day and its 145^th anniversary.

Four juniors also will be recognized for scholastic achievement and their involvement in campus life.

The annual Founders Day event will be held Saturday, April 20, at 11 a.m. in  the James R. Connor University Center on campus.

This year's S.A. White Award goes to Roger Pulliam, emeritus assistant vice chancellor for academic support services, for his years of service to UW-Whitewater.  Arriving on campus in 1986, he became an inspirational mentor to hundreds of Warhawks, especially multicultural and first-generation students.

The Pulliam-Dunlap Scholarship at UW-Whitewater includes the name of the aunt who raised him and his eight brothers and sisters in Gary, Ind.  Pulliam, who received his Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Michigan, was a founding member of the annual National Black Student Union Conference. He lives in Whitewater.

His award is named for Samuel A. White, a judge who was instrumental in the founding of the Whitewater Normal School, which later became UW-Whitewater, in April 1868.

The Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award will go to Aaron Everson, Waunakee, a 2009 graduate who is president and COO of Shoutlet in Madison, which licenses software to help companies create, manage and measure their social media communications.  He was a co-founder of Jellyfish.com, a socially interactive online shopping site that was sold to Microsoft for $50 million.

Recipients of Distinguished Alumni Awards for Professional Achievement are:

• Arlis Greiling, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., a 1963 graduate in education and speech, who is a retired principal partner and member of the executive board of directors for Greiling Farms Inc., headquartered in Denmark, Wis.  She and her husband, Gene, led the company's transition from field-grown produce farms to an innovative greenhouse production business.
• Mary Tilton, Lake Mills, a 1974 graduate in chemistry and math, who is a management consultant and served as vice president of plant operations at Virent Inc.  During her eight-year tenure, the company grew from 12 to 120 employees and she led the successful development of the process and equipment for converting sugar to gasoline in a demonstration plant.
• Scott Wrobbel, Pewaukee, a 1980 accounting graduate, who is the managing partner of the Wisconsin practice of Deloitte LLP, the largest Big Four accounting and consulting organization in the state.  Under his leadership, the Milwaukee office received the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence and Flexibility in 2011 and 2012.
• Aaron Jagdfeld, Mukwonago, a 1993 accounting graduate, who is president and CEO of Generac Power Systems, a global company that manufactures the widest range of power products in the marketplace. Since 2008, he has led the company through an extraordinary period of growth as it doubled in size and became listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

This year's Outstanding Juniors at UW-Whitewater will receive $1,000 scholarships.  They are:

• Emilee A. Deck, St. Francis, an instrumental music education major in the College of Arts and Communication.
• Samantha Hoerchner, Germantown, a marketing major in the College of Business and Economics.
• Kelly McGrail, Tinley Park, Ill., a special education major in the College of Education and Professional Studies.
• Ashley Vedvig, Stoughton, a geography major in the College of Letters and Sciences.