Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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Did you know that Tower is the only dormitory in the nation which has Murphy beds? Or that Mrs. Palmer’s swinging placement office in Tower's basement was once a swinging bar? Or that the Catholic Knights Insurance Company sold it to MU in '52 because it needed a bigger place? Or that one could draw the conclusion that, if history is true to its reputation, future MU-ers will be enjoying the swimming pool of the present Knights Tower building? 7

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Marquette’s $3.5 million men’s tenement anchored on 13th Street is named after a Milwaukee hotel and insurance magnate, who sat on the university’s board of governors. Walter Schroeder passed from this world on July 18, 1967 at the spry age of 89. He left a modest estate of $20,682,154 in trust, to be conferred upon charitable, religious, and educational institutions, including Marquette. Looking upon his assets would make even the most powerful fat-cat turn three shades of green. He had securities valued at $18,193,573, including $8,975,361 in Chris Schroeder and Sons Inc. and $6,200,549 in Hotels Inc.. The terms of the will specify that the trustees cannot distribute the estate until seven years after Schroeder’s departure. This means Marquette's take of 6% won’t be received until 1974. The funds will be used to establish the Walter Schroeder Scholarship Fund. The class of ’78 will surely vie tooth and nail for this scholarship, if tuition continues to increase. Schroeder was president of a successful insurance agency, the Chris Schroeder and Son Company, and also president of Hotels Inc. He was the builder and former owner of the 25-story Schroeder Hotel, now known as the Sheraton-Schroeder. Schroeder was born in Milwaukee in 1878, as the son of immigrant German parents who had come to Wisconsin in the 1850’s. Despite his wealth, he remained celebate. The moral of the story is: if you live right and eat your vegetables, you too might leave an estate of $20 million. 6

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The year was 1952. The location was somewhere in the southeastern part of America’s Dairyland. It had been a year like any other—filled with the exigencies of life that are not often remembered by all those who come after. Everything is exactly as it was then, except for one exception: You are there.” Jamie Olsen is on the scene to cover this historic event in the Midwest’s least progressive city in the country’s most progressive state. She has just sat in on a meeting between the Marquette University plantagenets and the university board of directors. Rumor has it that this meeting was held to discuss the possibility of coeducational housing. Jamie, are you there? Yes. Can you fill us in on the details of the meeting? No. Can you tell us anything about what happened in the board room,? No. Why not? I was sworn to secrecy. Well, ah, thank you Jamie. Somewhere in the archival-minds that fill Johnston Hall a secret has been kept for the past 20 years. O’Donnell Hall had originally been planned as a coed dormitory for the Marquette community. It seems almost inconceivable, in this present age of permissiveness, that in the daze of Joe McCarthy such an idea could even be contemplated. But, perhaps this explains O’Donnell Hall's remote location on 18th street. Very few people know who the man behind the building is. Father Edward J. O'Donnell, SJ. was named chancellor of Marquette in 1962 after serving thirteen years as president of Marquette. He was then the youngest president the university ever had. Both town and gown had cause to rejoice when Father O’Donnell was called home from sunny tropical weather of the British Honduras in 1948, to become president of Marquette in blistering cold Milwaukee. This priest, who had taken a vow of personal poverty was needed to direct a multi-million-dollar university expansion program in the heart of Milwaukee. The work of Father O’Donnell can be seen in the concrete, steel, brick, mortar and marble which we call Marquette. It was during Father O’Donnell regime that the mismatched modern-structures and the renovated apartment building and hotels, were planned as the “new Marquette.” In November 1960, he announced the ‘‘Marquette Plan. Unlike Phase II, people immediately understood its merits. The plan called for a broad $45 million development and expansion program which included new buildings, land acquisitions, faculty salary increases, student aids and research. Whenever there’s trouble brewing in the air you can bet your combat booties that O’D girls are sure to be there. If there's a heavy happening on campus look around and spot the O’D coeds. These O’D girls have formed their own female review handled with the reputation of being wildspirits. But the man behind the name they carry is still somewhere in Milwaukee continuing to champion his energies to the university’s unending fight for peace, justice, money and the American way. 8