A Special Supplement from the Marquette University Alumni Association
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dr. John F. Wakerly, Eng ’70 G L E N V I E W, I L L .
Dr. John Wakerly’s illustrious career is the product of a brain that never stops. Case in point: He has 30-plus patents in telecommunications and networking technology and has authored eight engineering textbooks and more than 50 other publications. He spent 30 years, mostly part time, on Stanford University’s faculty while also juggling highprofile roles in industry, including as chief technology officer of a division at Cisco Systems and co-founder of three startups, one of which was acquired by Google in 2010. John says the engineering fundamentals he learned at Marquette prepared him well for graduate school at Stanford and his later career. Three months after arriving at Stanford, John competed in the Electrical Engineering
FRIEND OF THE UNIVERSITY AWARD
Geri Dodge Fotsch E L M G R OV E , W I S .
The Fotsch family motto: “To whom much is given, much is expected.” And so Geri and her late husband, Bill, have fulfilled those words by donating generously to Engineering Hall and endowing an engineering scholarship in honor of Bill’s father. But perhaps their greatest gift to the university? Sending all eight of their children to Marquette. “I have eight very successful children,” Geri says. “They and I say, ‘Thank you, Marquette.’”
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Department’s doctoral qualifying exam and finished in the top 15 percent, with not much more than his Marquette training as preparation. But Marquette also influenced his life in other ways. “There’s the aspect of chaos theory — the butterfly flapping its wings affecting seemingly disconnected places and events. I met my first wife, Kate Rostenkowski, as a junior at Marquette. If we hadn’t married, my life would have been completely different and probably less successful,” he says. While now splitting his time between Illinois and California, John stays active with Marquette activities ranging from his generous support of a wide range of university initiatives to his service on the College of Engineering’s National Advisory Council to personally helping a Marquette intern find housing in Northern California. In his spare time, John serves as president of the Wakerly Family Foundation, which he and his late wife Kate founded in 1996.
Geri knows the value of a college education — she attended Lake Forest College before starting work as a legal secretary. “I was fortunate,” she says. “Five percent of my graduating class from high school went to college. And my parents could only afford to send me for one year so I worked (to pay for the second) … and I was proud of the fact that I had two years.” She then started dating her first high school dance date, Bill Fotsch, who was studying engineering at the University of Notre Dame. After getting married in 1954, they had eight children in 7.5 years. Meanwhile, Bill was busy as chairman and president of Bausch Machine Tool Co. in West Allis, Wis.