FEATURES MIKE CHANEY ‘63
Chaney’s effect on kids’ discovering their passions and helping them discern their lives proved a career constant. “Mr. Chaney sparked my interest in chemistry. I took both general and AP chemistry with him and loved both classes. That interest led me to study chemical engineering at UW–Madison . . . I look back at my time in his classes as one of the reasons for the great career path I have discovered,” says Tim Sullivan ’08, now working for a Madison chemical company. Perhaps more in keeping with Chaney’s own tone, Conrad Kaminski ’12 remembers, “Mr. Chaney always advised us to ‘find a lab partner who’s smarter than you are’—wise words from a great man, teacher and role model. Marquette will miss him.” Stanford University junior Patrick O’Grady ’14 adds, “Mr. Chaney has been one of the best friends I made at Marquette High. He is committed to being a teacher of the person as much as being a teacher of the student. Almost every day at lunch I would go up to his room to eat and chat with him. I remember one day in particular where I had been very interested in working with fuel cells and he put a lab together for us to do, just me and him. Personally, I don’t know what else someone could want from any person. He will be missed dearly.” Chaney is remembered with equal reverence by the students who had to meet with him when he was a school disciplinarian. Andrew
Dhuey ’85, recalls being a frequent guest in Mr. Chaney’s administrative office. Running an NCAA basketball tourney pool one winter, Andrew was seen changing money. “Mr. Chaney asked me if I was involved, and I replied, ‘Yes, it’s very much like the faculty’s NCAA pool.’ He thought for a minute and said, ‘OK, you can go back to class.’” Chaney’s impact has been just as profound on the MUHS faculty. Colleague and former science chair Jim Kostenko says, “Mike is very pastoral. He makes a point to know how things are going with others not just professionally but also personally. He is genuinely interested in people. He might have attended more than the Jesuits Marquette-related funerals, even those of faculty in-laws. Something rare about Mike: he might get upset but I have never seen him in a bad mood because of it.” Kostenko adds that the departments of Chaney’s tenure never had anyone so knowledgeable in chemistry. “He stays current by reading and working. He even has worked with Glen Sebourg, at one time the only person alive to have an element named for him.” Several years ago, Chaney and Kostenko together toured the Los Alamos nuclear test site. Veteran teacher now retired, Mike Donovan mentions that one of Chaney’s assets to the school is his versatility in teaching students of any ability and just about any scientific content. “At the same time, he had regular, accelerated and advanced placement sections, five sections of three different courses. We never had anyone so qualified teaching the freshman Introductory Physical Science. He helped develop its success even as it evolved into Introduction to Concepts in Chemistry. Teaching Chem 2 for years, he covered topics not studied in other courses, including nuclear and organic chemistry.” Science teachers newer to the faculty speak of his professional influence while observing and studying his habits. Biology and chemistry teacher, Nicole Williams says, “When interviewed by Mike to teach here, I identified with the labs, especially the AP ones, that he runs—they really struck home for me. He chooses meaningful content and lab experiences that help a kid learn chemistry. He is a walking, talking chemistry book in terms of his knowledge and expertise.”
Mike Chaney ’63 (pictured) invited Dr. Don Showalter, professor emeritus and former chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, to MUHS every four years to perform his World of Chemistry show for students.
30 MUHS Magazine
Williams notes that Chaney also enjoys using the lab’s new distillery, though department members puzzle over Chaney’s fascination with it. “He arrives early every day and it’s already been running.” Physics and chemistry teacher, Carl Kaiser concerns himself more over why the Geiger counter “always goes nuts when it’s near Chaney’s lunch. We’re not yet certain whether his diet is radioactive or that Mike himself is a nuclear phenomenon.”