Being a Wisconsin native and as a 'walk-on' to the University of Wisconsin, it was a privilege to graduate in pharmacy and play Big Ten basketball in the 1950s. Our contribution to University Athletics, the Athletic Training Education Program and the sports medicine facilities is very important to me.

Curt Mueller (’57 BS Pharm)

The Passions of a Lifetime Inspire a Bequest

Helen Firstbrook Franklin spent her life seeking out the unusual. She has left a bequest to the UW-Madison that will help students in several disciplines continue the search. A native of New Jersey, Helen received her bachelor's degree in journalism from the UW. At the time, the UW was one of only three journalism schools in the United States.

Following her graduation in 1937, she returned to the East and went to work for the Reader's Digest. With the post World War II boom, Reader's Digest co-founder DeWitt Wallace assigned Helen the new "Life in These United States" department, one of the magazine's most popular and enduring features. As Helen recalled, "it turned out to be just the most interesting thing."

During this time Helen traveled extensively throughout Latin America learning Spanish and establishing contacts. With Castro's rise to power in Cuba, the Reader's Digest assigned Helen to lead its Latin American coverage. Until her retirement in 1978, she worked with offices in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico contributing articles and photos, several of which were published in Selecciones, the Spanish language edition of Reader's Digest. Helen continued to travel the world, reading and editing books and taking an active role in international, national and local cultural organizations until her death in April 2000 at the age of 85.
Helen Firstbrook Franklin's bequest is a reflection of her many interests. Her gift establishes an endowed professorship and two distinguished graduate fellowships in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication plus two distinguished graduate fellowships in the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies. The Franklin estate also will endow student activities in the undergraduate Writing Fellows Program along with innovative projects in the arts and humanities within the College of Letters & Science.