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Family honors educator’s career cut short by tragedy April 2004
Mogensen’s career in education was cut short in 1969 when, at the age of 46, he was killed by a troubled junior high school student. Now his family is honoring his career by establishing the Martin Mogensen Education Lecture through gifts to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation. Martin Mogensen’s daughters Marti Mogensen, a 1971 UW-Eau Claire education graduate, and Margaret Nelson, a 1969 UW-Eau Claire political science graduate, have provided funding for the first Martin Mogensen Education Lecture, held April 21, 2004. Through gifts to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, they intend to support an annual lecture in honor of their father’s career as a teacher and school administrator. They also have established the Martin Mogensen Education Scholarship Fund. “We are delighted that the lecture, and later the scholarship, will honor Dad’s teaching and also show that we still have hope and faith in youth and education, despite how he died,” said Marti Mogensen, a teacher in the Berkeley, Calif., school system. The 2004 Martin Mogensen Education Lecture was part of the inaugural activities of UW-Eau Claire’s new Center for Collaborative Leadership in Education. “We are pleased that the first Martin Mogensen Lecture is a part of our celebration as we launch the work of our new center,” said Katherine Rhoades, associate dean of the School of Education. “The Center for Collaborative Leadership in Education will assist us in working more closely with our partners in PK-12 schools in the region, and this annual lecture will be an important contribution to that partnership.” Martin Mogensen worked his way through college with the help of the G.I. Bill, supporting his young family while also taking an active role in college activities, including editing The Spectator, UW-Eau Claire’s student newspaper. He began his career as an English teacher in Baldwin and then moved his family to Tomah, where he was an elementary school principal. After receiving his master’s degree in school administration from the University of Minnesota, he worked as superintendent of the Waldo public schools from 1956-59. He later went into the private sector, working for a school textbook company and serving on the Tomah school board. After six years, he returned to educational administration as Tomah’s first junior high school principal. He served in that position until he was killed in 1969. The support from Martin Mogensen’s family for the lecture and scholarship is a fitting tribute to his career as an educator, Rhoades said. “Their gifts hold so much power to extend the reach of education,” she said.
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