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Janet and Don Levy were honored February 28th as the recipients of the 2008 Civic Award. Don and Janet have worked with unselfish enthusiasm to enhance the Cedarburg community in many ways. As a team they were instrumental in campaigns which made it possible to build the current Cedarburg Library, Webster Transitional School, the Cedarburg Performing Arts Center and the Centennial celebration for the city. As individuals, each has served in unique ways. Janet Levy was a founder of the Cedarburg High School Community Service Program, which encouraged local high school students to get involved in volunteer activities. Among the events initiated during her 13 years with the program were a prom for adults with disabilities, a haunted house for charity, the "Ski for Sight" to raise money for visually impaired skiers, and the Jam for Charity. Don Levy's long history of civic involvement includes serving as past president of the Cedarburg/Grafton Rotary, as board member of the Cedarburg Performing Arts Center, and as past chairman of the St. Mary's Foundation Ozaukee. As chairman of the St. Mary's Foundation, Don was instrumental in a campaign to raise $5.3 million for the expansion of the Columbia St. Mary's Ozaukee campus. |
Janet and Don Levy Honored
Photo courtesy of Deb Kranitz, The News Graphic He is founder and president of the Cedarburg Landmark Presentation Society, which has preserved many historic structures in the city, including the Grist Mill, Turne Hall, and the most recent renovation of the Rivoli Theatre. His work earned him the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Frank Kirkpatrick Award in 2002, which honors individuals who enrich the lives of others. |
2007 Civic Award Recipient: Edward Rappold Honored
Edward A. Rappold, whose collection of historic Cedarburg photographs has kept Cedarburg’s pioneers, their buildings and their lifestyles alive and available for the future, received the fifth annual Civil Award of the Cedarburg Foundation on February 1, 2007. More than 250 well-wishers attended the foundation’s Civic Celebration at the Cedarburg Cultural Center. Ed and his wife Alda, who were married in 1941, were at the center table with their daughter, Lynn Hamblin, and her family from St. Paul, Minn. Another daughter, Gail Hoffman of St. Louis, Mo., could not attend. Ed Rappold was brought as an infant to Cedarburg after his birth in 1919, and the family moved into a quarried stone house built in 1865 by Ed’s great grandfather, Eilert Stallman, across Columbia Road from the Columbia Mill. The mill site is now occupied by Ozaukee Bank. He and Alda both attended Cedarburg High School. Even before high school Ed had joined the school camera club and he began snapping pictures around the town with his folding Kodak, a camera he still owns. In 1939, Ed opened a photograph studio on Washington Avenue just northeast of Immanuel Lutheran Church. When Cedarburg residents brought him old photographs to be copied, he would ask permission to keep a print and negative. Thus began his collection of historic views of Cedarburg and surrounding places. The collection now includes more than 2,200 images and many of these have become widely known through Ed’s two books, “Reflections of Old Cedarburg,” printed in 1994, followed by “More Reflections of Old Cedarburg,” in 2002, both published by the Cultural Center. In addition, some of the images in the Rappold collection have been reproduced as post cards and they have illustrated articles and books about Cedarburg. Ed has been in demand for years to give his slide show of old Cedarburg to groups throughout Ozaukee County. Last year, Ed gave the entire collection of photographs to the Cultural Center. A selection of Cedarburg scenes was printed and mounted in a special display for the Civic Celebration. The negatives are protected in a vault at the Ozaukee Bank. As it happens, when the Cultural Center was founded in 1988 and occupied the first floor of the Lincoln Building, the old elementary school, images from Ed’s collection formed the first major exhibit. But he was always a Cedarburger. While Ed was in the service, the old stone house was sold, and Ed and Alda built a new house on Bridge Road not far west of the old place. They lived there until moving to a condominium on Pioneer Court. In addition to being a photographer, Ed helped shape the city in many other ways. He served as a Cedarburg Alderman for 28 years, under Mayors Merlin Rostad, E. Stephan Fischer and Quentin Schenk. He believes that may be the longest tenure for an elected official in Cedarburg’s history. During that time he was chairman of many city boards and commissions. Ed received a check for $1,000 as the Civic Award recipient, which he immediately recycled into Cedarburg’s projects by directing that $300 of it go to the Rivoli Theatre restoration project, $300 to the Cultural Center and $400 to the Cedarburg Foundation. He also received a commemorative plate showing the 1855 Hilgen-Schroeder Mill. Also at the Civic Event, Foundation President Jim Coutts reported in his annual state of the foundation report that the foundation’s endowment fund had reached more than $700,000 and that the foundation had made a recent grant of $25,000 to be paid out at $5,000 a year for five years for the renovation of the Boy Scout House. Entertainment for the evening featured the Cedarburg High School Swing Choir under the direction of Victoria Benson. Quiet jazz was played by Vic DiCristo on the bass viol and Tony Gorenc on the guitar during hors d’oeurvres. Sponsors of the evening were Calibre Inc., Grafton, and Carlson Tool, Ozaukee Bank and Terrace Realty, all of Cedarburg.
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2006 Civic Award Recipient: Bob Armbruster Honored
Bob Armbruster, whose family has operated Armbruster Jewelers on Cedarburg’s Washington Avenue since 1884, received The Cedarburg Foundation’s fourth annual Civic Award at the foundation’s annual civic celebration February 19, 2006. Armbruster was recognized for his lifelong contributions to Cedarburg’s quality of life. He is widely sought as a local historian. He and his wife Mary Aileen have overseen the restoration of the 1904 white terra cotta jewelry store to its early 20th century décor. His cheerful demeanor has been a presence on Washington Avenue for decades. Bob is the third generation of Armbrusters to operate the jewelry store. His grandfather John Armbruster came to Cedarburg from the Black Forest region of southwest Germany in 1882 to play clarinet in the Weber Brewery Band of Cedarburg. He opened his jewelry and music store in 1884. Grandfather John was mayor of Cedarburg for 16 years. He also served as county board chairman, secretary of the fire department, secretary of the Turnverein and he was an avid booster of local businesses. One of his sons, also named John, Bob’s father, ran the store until 1946. Bob was born in 1920 and lived until adulthood in a large apartment above the jewelry store along with his grandparents, his parents, two sisters and his brother John. That was typical for Washington Avenue in that day, when many families who ran downtown businesses lived above their stores. The language upstairs was German, although German was being heard less and less on the street. Bob and his siblings attended elementary grades in the Lincoln Building, now the Cedarburg Senior Center, and high school in the present City Hall, both buildings across the street from the jewelry store. He and his brother John returned from the service in late 1945 and ran the store together for 25 years, when John left to become City Clerk under Mayor Stephen Fischer. Bob and the former Mary Aileen Behnke, a Marquette University-trained medical technician, were married in 1949. In 1952, they built their present home on St. John Street where they raised their four children, Joan, John, Wendy and Peter. All are married and Bob and Mary Aileen have 11 grandchildren. Bob has been an active member and leader in the Lions Club, Rotary, Knights of Columbus, Wisconsin Jewelers Association, and the Peter Wollner Post of the American Legion. In some cases his membership dates back more than 50 years. |
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2005 Civic Award Recipient: Ralph J. Huiras Honored
Lawyer, retired banker and philanthropist Ralph J. Huiras received the third annual Cedarburg Foundation civic award at a banquet held in his honor at the Cedarburg Cultural Center February 17, 2005. About 200 persons attended the celebration, which included an annual report by Foundation President Duey Stroebel, wine, cheese and desserts, a silent auction, and quiet jazz by Vic DiCristo and Tony Gorenc. The Cedarburg High School Swing Choir presented Broadway show tunes as entertainment. The audience included many friends and family members of Huiras, including his daughter, Lynn Ferguson of Portland, Oregon, and his son, Peter, of the town of Cedarburg. Friends included representatives of some of Huiras’ favorite charities, including Joseph D. Kearney, dean of Marquette University’s Law School; Jerold F. Voigt, chairman of the town of Cedarburg, and Lisa Froemming, vice president of institutional advancement for the Columbia-St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation. Except for seven years when he served as an FBI agent during and after World War II, Huiras has lived in Ozaukee County. His grandfather was a diary farmer and his father was an Ozaukee County judge. After high school in Port Washington, Huiras attended Marquette Law School, then joined the FBI. While serving in Miami, Florida, he met his future wife, Marianne Ledgerwood, of Knoxville, Tennessee, who was working for Pan Am airlines. They returned to Ozaukee County in 1947. Ralph opened his law office in Port Washington and the couple later bought an 80-acre farm in the town of Cedarburg, where they raised their children. Huiras has been chairman of the town of Cedarburg, Ozaukee County board chairman, president of the Colonial Bank and attorney for the town of Cedarburg. His philanthropy and includes financing for the Columbia-St. Mary’s-Ozaukee Hospital free clinic, the town of Cedarburg’s new town hall and electronic classrooms at Marquette Law School. He is a member of the Divine Word Catholic Church at Five Corners where his wife Marianne played the organ. Marianne died in 1997. Huiras received a commemorative plate crafted by Cedarburg potter Dave Eitel. He also received $1,000, which he donated to the Cultural Center. As it has in former years, Ozaukee Bank sponsored the evening.
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2004 Civic Award Recipient: Carl Edquist Honored
More than 200 persons gathered at the Cedarburg Cultural Center on February 26, 2004 to honor Carl W. Edquist, the recipient of the 2004 Civic Award of the Cedarburg Foundation. All his children, some of their spouses, two brothers and several grandchildren were in attendance. Carl has been a quiet, effective source of good things in Cedarburg for many decades. He is a successful industrialist, having founded the Carlson Tool Co. here in 1958. He is a successful parent, the father of eight children and grandfather of 19. The partnership of Carl and Rita Edquist lent essential support to Cedarburg's cultural and artistic life until Rita’s death in 2001. They were the primary founders and longtime benefactors of the Cedarburg Cultural Center. Carl continues the Edquist family legacy of public giving today. Carl was born in 1918 in a two-room house in Saskatchewan, Canada, the oldest child of Swedish parents. He lived in Canada for 10 years and memories of his Canadian childhood remain the subject of many stories he tells his children and grandchildren today. A series of droughts drove the family off the farm and the Edquists immigrated to the United States, settling eventually in northern Indiana. Carl was graduated from high school at the age of 16 and then held a series of jobs in the Great Depression, including, at the age of 18, at the Wilbar Manufacturing Co., Chesterton, Indiana, where he learned tool and die making. It was on an outing with friends to the nearby Indiana Dunes that Carl met Rita Anne Valenzano, a budding young artist of Chicago, and thus began a long courtship that culminated in their marriage in 1944 during World War II. In early 1945, Carl was recruited as a tool and die maker at the Los Alamos Laboratory, which assembled the first atomic bombs. Rita, pregnant with their first child Paul moved in with her parents in Chicago. The mission of Los Alamos was so secret that it could not be discussed even with family members, but it became apparent on July 16, 1945, when the first human-caused atomic explosion took place at Alamogordo, New Mexico. This led quickly to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of the war. Carl worked in Chicago and Milwaukee and moved his family to rural Cedarburg in 1947. Carl founded Carlson Tool and Manufacturing Co. in 1958. Today its president and chief executive officer is Jerry Edquist, Carl’s son. Carl Edquist is a founding member of Forward Cedarburg, a founding board member of the Ozaukee Bank, founder of the Carlson Fine Arts Foundation in the 1980s, and he and Rita were the essential founders of the Cedarburg Cultural Center. He donated land for the Ozaukee Ice Center in 1995, and began the Rita Edquist Memorial Fund in 2001 to "support with grants and scholarships the visual and performing arts benefiting residents of the City and Town of Cedarburg…." He was a founding contributor to the Cedarburg Foundation, and he has contributed to many other civic projects and programs. Since Rita’s death, he has become curator of her life’s production of art, and he arranged for her paintings, drawings and sculptures to be exhibited in 2003 at the Cultural Center in a major show called "Rita, a Retrospective." |
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2003 Civic Award Recipient: Merlin G. Rostad
On February 27, 2003, the Greater Cedarburg Community Foundation presented Merlin G. Rostad with the first annual Cedarburg Civic Award. The award was presented at the Foundations Civic Celebration held at the Cedarburg Cultural Center. The Civic Award recognized Merlin as a leading citizen of the Cedarburg community for more than 50 years. He is an involved and longtime resident of Cedarburg who was also honored as a successful industrialist, artist and former Cedarburg mayor. Merlin Rostad exemplifies the qualities that have made Cedarburg the special place it is, including public service, leadership and generosity. A man of many talents, he is civic leader, successful industrialist and artist at the same time. He was an early supporter of the Cedarburg Foundation and helped us get off to an impressive start, said Paul Hayes, foundation board member, who introduced Merlin at the civic awards night. After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1942, Merlin settled in Cedarburg in 1949, where he became interested in pursuing public affairs. Shortly after, he was appointed to the Planning Commission and started his own precision aluminum mold-making company in 1953. Rostad Aluminum Corp. continues to operate successfully under the management of the Rostad family. Besides proving himself an accomplished artist and businessman, Merlin served two successful terms as mayor of Cedarburg from 1958 to1966. In addition to his involvement in Cedarburg, Merlin has served on the boards of Luther Manor for 10 years, Wisconsin College of Music for18 years, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, also for 10 years. Merlin is also highly recognized throughout the Cedarburg community for his one true passion, art. He merged his career in precision metal work with his artistic talents to create large aluminum sculptures. His artwork can be seen in collections at the Mayo Clinic and Concordia College in Moorehead, MN, his alma mater. On August 11, 2003, Merlin and Gladys Rostad celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. The Rostads have three children and five grandchildren. The Cedarburg Civic Award will be presented each year to an individual who has provided outstanding support to the Foundation.
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