Bob Abendroth ’51 Named Founders’ Day Award Recipient

Abendroth, one of the longest-serving trustees, benefactor and part of four generations of Ripon alumni, receives annual award.

Because of his extraordinary and continuous service to Ripon College, Robert V. Abendroth, Class of 1951, will receive Ripon College’s 2026 Founders’ Day Award in the College’s 175th anniversary year.

The Founders’ Day Award honors an individual or organization in the greater Ripon Campus community who exemplifies the ideals of the founders of Ripon College and who has contributed above and beyond to the mission of the school.

The formal presentation of the award will be at the 161st Commencement ceremony May 17.

“The Abendroth family recently passed the Farr family as the longest consecutive family service to the Board of Trustees. The Abendroth family has been instrumental in Ripon College’s success, and I have been honored to serve with Bob’s son Tom. Recognizing the patriarch of this dynasty is so fitting for our 175th anniversary and perfect for our theme of Exemplary Past. Extraordinary Future,” said President Victoria N. Folse.

Abendroth is one of the longest-serving members of Ripon’s Board of Trustees, spanning 31 years from 1965-1996. For 19 of those years, he was chairman of the board. Upon his retirement from the board in 1996, he was elected Honorary Life Trustee.

During his tenure as chairman, he sat on each of the board’s different committees, helped strengthen the College financially and substantially changed the face of the campus. Four new buildings were added: J.M. Storzer Center for athletics, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts, Todd Wehr Hall, the president’s house and East Hall, Tri-Dorms and Bartlett Hall were restored.

He also has served as president of Ripon’s Alumni Association, an Alumni Trustee, an enthusiastic volunteer for numerous initiatives, and a generous benefactor, including funding for the Abendroth Family Endowed Scholarship, the family-sponsored Abendroth Athletic Suite in Willmore Center and Abendroth Family Atrium in the newly renovated Franzen Science Center.

He received Ripon College’s Distinguished Alumni Citation in 1972 and the Medal of Merit, Ripon’s highest honor for a graduate, in 1993.

The Founders’ Day Award caps Abendroth’s distinguished career in law that began when he was the first law clerk for Warren Burger, then a little-known judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

At Abendroth’s invitation, Burger addressed Ripon’s Commencement in 1967, and shortly thereafter was appointed chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1958, Abendroth joined the Whyte, Hirschboeck, Minahan, Harding and Harland law firm in Milwaukee as an associate and was made a partner in 1965. He worked primarily in antitrust law, which protects trade from unlawful restraints and monopolies or unfair business practices.

Abendroth said he is honored to receive the award, “but to me, it is more of a legacy to the four generations of my family who attended Ripon than it is to me or anything I have done or stand for.”
He said the ideals of the founders that this award represents are found in the value of a liberal arts education. “Those values, to me, represent a motivation to think, talk and write as an educated adult and to be a better citizen.
“Implicit in those ideals is that a liberal arts education is a smorgasbord of ideas and different subjects. Opening your mind at the age of a student gives rise to joy and vitality throughout one’s entire life. It certainly has done that for me.”

Ripon College was officially founded Jan. 29, 1851. Each year, the College celebrates the anniversary of its founding by honoring a community partner with the Founders’ Day Award. This year marks Ripon College’s 175th anniversary and kicks off a year of events.

Recent recipients include: The Oshkosh Area Community Foundation, 2025; The Boys & Girls Club of the Tri-County Area in 2024; Peter E. Stone of Fond du Lac, chairman of the board of National Exchange Bank and Trust and chairman of the private Stone Family Foundation, 2023; and Jeanne Lyke, a Ripon pediatrician, 2022.

Visit ripon.edu/founders-day for a complete list of past recipients and for Ripon College’s 175th anniversary celebrations visit: https://ripon.edu/175-celebration/.