Shirley Sherwood
Arts '47, Grad '49
"I have devoted my life to gifted students," says Sherwood, who came to Marquette University in the late 1940s, when there were far fewer women present on the nation's college campuses.
DONOR PROFILES
Genyne Edwards
Law '00
Thomas and Patricia Packee
Bus Ad '64 and H Sci '65
Kristen Maskala
Arts '94
Kurt Schummer
Bus Ad '00
Shirley Sherwood
Arts '47 and Grad '49
Dr. Francis Van Lieshout
Grad '51
Jim Imhoff
Bus Ad '66
Craig Koshkarian
Bus Ad '92
She and her female classmates quickly learned to be strong and independent and to compete with the men in the classroom. "You couldn't be a shrinking violet," she says.
She most admired the two women who had broken the glass ceiling and earned admission to the Law School. And she revered the Jesuit faculty who taught students the values of excellence, faith and service.
Sherwood majored in Latin and English literature — earning both bachelor's and master's degrees — and became a teaching assistant for Marquette's gifted students, many of whom were recently discharged servicemen.
That campus experience set Sherwood on a course that included teaching English at Milwaukee's Custer High School, administering the Milwaukee Public Schools' English curriculum and instruction, and doing volunteer work to raise funds for student scholarships.
Education has been a mainstay of her life; her focus has always been to put the best education — a Marquette education, in her opinion — within reach of outstanding students.
"When I was teaching," Sherwood says, "I had students who were desperate to go to Marquette and it was financially difficult."
She hopes her gift will help remove that obstacle and give the next generation of leaders — of the community, the country and the church — an opportunity to experience an education based on the values that have imbued her life and that she learned at Marquette.
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