Thank you to Richard S. Schreiner (‘82 MS Computer Science) and his wife, Alison Graf, who recently established the Richard S. Schreiner ’82 and Alison Graf Scholarship Fund.
The endowed fund will provide scholarships to undergraduates in good academic standing in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science. Preference will be given to students who are in the first generation of their families to attend college.
In addition, the couple established the CEAS Student Success Fund, which will support staffing programs and services that help students enrolled in the college succeed academically and develop skills needed to complete their engineering degrees.
“We are pleased to establish both these funds, but the Student Success Fund is especially meaningful,” Richard said. “As a new undergraduate student in 1973, I needed significant remediation of my math skills as my high school did not offer preparatory calculus. From that experience I learned the importance of the services offered by the CEAS Student Success Center.”
About Richard Schreiner and Alison Graf
Richard was a first-generation college student and earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University. While working for Johnson Controls, he earned his MS in Computer Science from UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science and received tuition reimbursement from the company. Knowing firsthand how helpful financial support was to his engineering career, he would become a consistent and generous contributor to undergraduate scholarships offered by the college.
Alison graduated in 1973 from Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, with a BA in Speech and Drama, a BA in French and a minor in Philosophy. She worked 33 years in Milwaukee’s radio and television industry as a broadcast personality and management executive at stations including WEMP/WMYX, WVTV-TV, and WFMR. She retired in 2007.
The college awarded Richard a Distinguished Service Award in 2007, and the Computer Science Alumnus of the Year Award in 2008. He retired from Johnson Controls in 2013 as a product development engineer.
In addition to his service to UWM, Richard volunteers for various nonprofit organizations and governmental units including the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. He is a member of Toastmasters International (achieving Distinguished Toastmaster status in 2012) and a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He and Alison are long-time supporters of the arts in Milwaukee and Chicago.