Dr. Molly Hinshaw (’94 BS EDU, ’00 MD), on the medical school scholarship established with husband Dr. Louis Hinshaw (’94 BS L&S, ’00 MD)

Into the Woods: Hall Honors Stanton and Dorothy Mead

Stanton and Dorothy Mead loved Lake Tomahawk, and their children have attached their names to part of the landscape at one of the area’s most valuable resources.

The Kemp Natural Resources Station, located between the town of Lake Tomahawk and Woodruff in northern Wisconsin, will be the site of the Stanton and Dorothy Mead Residence Hall, named in honor of the late businessman renowned for his leadership of Consolidated Papers Inc., and his late wife.

The Meads’ children provided major gifts to support the residence hall, which will provide year-round lodging for students and scientists at Kemp Station, a College of Agricultural and Life Sciences research and teaching facility. Construction is scheduled to begin this year.

“This was a way for the three children to memorialize our parents,” said son George W. Mead II, chairman of The Mead Witter Foundation Inc. in Wisconsin Rapids. “My father did have a connection with the Kemp Resource Station. It provides a nice, warm feeling to have their names connected with this project. They always enjoyed Lake Tomahawk, and they had a great time up there through the years.”

Kemp Station is dedicated to natural resources conservation. Its 235 acres support some of the last remnants of old-growth forest in the Great Lakes region. Other ecosystems are found on site, including second-growth forests of birch, aspen, maple, oak and pine; numerous coves, bogs and bog lakes; and more than one mile of shoreline along Tomahawk Lake.

The Stanton and Dorothy Mead Residence Hall will allow students and researchers to use the station during the winter months. With current facilities, lodgers can only stay at Kemp from April through October. In addition, scores of students and researchers are turned away during the summer months because of a lack of space.

George W. Mead II acknowledged that some people might be surprised that anyone connected with the paper industry would be interested in a preserve of old-growth forest. “Well, we have cut down a lot of trees in our time,” he said. “But when you’re involved with trees and forestry, you take pride in plantation and in old-growth forestry, too. The area is a nice old-growth stand that is a pleasure to behold.”

He said Consolidated Papers, under the leadership of Stanton Mead, was a pioneer in progressive forestry. “Stanton was a very responsible forest manager from the early days onward,” he said. “When federal forestry regulations were instituted and passed down, most of the practices were things we were already doing at Consolidated. We have always felt a great responsibility to manage the resources well, and we’ve planted a lot more trees than we’ve cut down.”

He noted that Consolidated also has allowed the public access to land it has controlled.

“We have always been an open forest manager,” Mead said. “We’ve allowed snowmobilers, skiers, hunters and hikers to use our land, provided the area was safe for outsiders at the time. We’ve tried to be a good steward and do things the right way. I was always proud of that.”

Indeed, Stanton Mead was one of the early inductees to the Forestry Hall of Fame in Stevens Point and was a founder of Trees for Tomorrow in Eagle River.

The Stanton and Dorothy Mead Residence Hall will provide convenient access to Kemp Station’s laboratory, office and computers, and it will allow diverse groups of researchers and students to be at the station throughout the year, fostering interdisciplinary learning and science.

“It’s good to see the Mead name attached to Kemp,” George W. Mead II said. “This is one more way of showing my parents’ love of the land.”