All Class Notes
Heavy white male, bearded, wearing orange hat and clothing and sipping a recreational beverage

Michael J. Lowrey

  • B.A. History (magna cum laude), 2004

On December 12, 2025, the 50th anniversary of my first state job, I will be retiring from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.  Spread the word to anybody who still remembers Orange Mike.

I am proud of my time at UWM and what I learned there, both at Cultures and Communities and elsewhere, and of my time as a member of UWM’s AFSCME Local 82. Although I have not been professionally employed or published as an historian, I have written or substantially edited over 500 Wikipedia articles on Wisconsin history and labor history, have served for many years as a volunteer admin on the English-language Wikipedia, and received a scholarship to attend the Wikimania conference in Nairobi this year.

I am still happily married to UWM alumna and former employee C. Kay “Cicatrice” Hinchliffe, and still the proud poppa of UWM Art History student Kelly Lowrey.