J. Martin Klotsche, First Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

 Guest post by Arcadia Rose Schmid

I introduce you all to Johannes Martin Klotsche, a man with an extraordinary mind whose powerful personality and determination became an essential foundation of the creation of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He will be portrayed online as @j.m.klotsche, which will detail both his public and private lives; this will provide historical context for the man who was essential to creating the conditions that allowed UW-Milwaukee to exist and expand into what it is today, a 104-acre campus with approximately 22,000 graduate and undergraduate students and a planetarium.

“Joe,” which was the name nearly everyone knew him by, or Johannes, the name nearly no one was aware of, was a brilliant child – he graduated from high school at age thirteen and then from college at the mere age of seventeen. After receiving his PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he began his teaching career at the Wisconsin State Teacher’s College-Milwaukee, and eventually was named its president. The name and function of the college was later changed, which led to him becoming the Provost of the Wisconsin-State College-Milwaukee in 1951. Though he was initially opposed to the creation of UWM, he later discerned that it was the answer to Milwaukee’s overburdened and somewhat lackluster higher educational opportunities: UW-Milwaukee would be a major urban research university. Klotsche advocated greatly for the ideals that came along with such a distinction, as he wanted the university and the city of Milwaukee to be closely intertwined. Klotsche’s charismatic personality and careful precision in his work carried him well throughout his tenure as Chancellor of UW-Milwaukee, and his efforts would leave a long-lasting legacy on the campus and the people who attended and worked there. Some of those accomplishments can be found in UW-Milwaukee’s library, both in the Archives department and on the shelves. The Archives contain nearly 70 boxes of papers from his own personal life and from official records while he was Chancellor, and seemingly all of the books published during his life, including Confessions of an Educator , The Role of the United States in World Affairs, and The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: A Historical Profile, 1885-1992.