Lakeland University received a $1 million gift from the estate of Ronald Scheele, a 1966 Lakeland University graduate and Sheboygan native, who died on Oct. 1, 2024, at the age of 80.
Half the gift will establish the Ronald Scheele Memorial Scholarship, which will be awarded to students pursuing a degree in the basic sciences who demonstrate financial need and maintain the required grade point average. The scholarship will be renewable annually.
The remaining $500,000 will create a science and healthcare innovation program growth fund. This allocation will provide support for science and healthcare innovation and program development including capital projects, program development, equipment and related institutional priorities within these fields.
Scheele family members, including his two children, visited Lakeland’s campus Oct. 13 to present the check and discuss the scope of the gift’s impact.
“This is a transformational gift that will expand access to life-changing programs available in the sciences at Lakeland,” said Lakeland University President Beth Borgen. “It is a fitting tribute to Ron and his legacy as an educator, researcher and scientist. He is creating pathways for a new generation of Lakeland students to create their own legacies in the sciences and healthcare field.
After graduating from Lakeland in 1966, he attended North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., where he met his first wife Constance (“Connie”) Wiesner and received his master’s degree in 1969 in radiation health physics. The couple moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1969 where Scheele served initially as an instructor of radiology (physics) and then as an assistant professor of radiology for the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine Radiology Department.
In 1975, the Scheele family relocated to Green Bay, and he worked for the radiation department at St. Vincent Hospital overseeing initial operation of their first linear accelerator. During his 11 years in Green Bay, he served in various roles as a radiation physicist at St. Vincent Hospital, ultimately managing the overall Division of Radiology Therapy.
In addition to his roles at St. Vincent, Scheele earned his master’s degree in health services administration from the College of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. He also taught night classes and consulted for numerous hospitals across the state of Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
In 1986, the Scheele family moved to Houston, Texas, where he worked within the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, serving various key roles and impacting numerous lives with his physics expertise until the time of his death.
