Gretchen (Holstein) Schoff
MADISON – Gretchen Holstein Schoff, age 62, died on Sunday, July 10, 1994 at University Hospital from the effects of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. Mrs. Schoff was a tenured professor of Engineering/Professional Development, and a former chairman of both the Institute for Environmental Studies and the Integrated Liberal studies program at UW-Madison. She continued to teach in all three programs and was highly regarded as a teacher and administrator, She held an undergraduate degree from UW-Stevens Point; and masters and doctorate degrees in English literature from UW-Madison. Prior to her work at the University, she taught at Madison West High School for nine years. Her encyclopedic interests and belief in the interrelatedness of knowledge and all human experience led Gretchen to work and exert her influence far beyond her professional duties. Her participation at Bethel Lutheran Church provided an expression of her religious life. She sang in the choir for over thirty years and was active in church governance. Central to all Gretchen’s work was her identity as a family member. The daughter of the late Floyd and Ester (Linquist) Holstein, Gretchen Schoff was born in Billings, Montana, but raised in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, along with her sister, as part of a large Scandinavian family. In 1959, she married H. Keith Schoff, a Madison attorney, with whom she shared thirty-five years of loving and devoted marriage. She is survived by her husband, Keith; and three sons, Erik, Soren, and Kell. In addition to her immediate family, surviving members of the family, include two maternal aunts, Lorraine Lindquist and Minnie Johnson; several cousins; and the family of her sister, Elizabeth Holstein Delgass (W. Nicholas Delgass, husband; Michael and Leif, sons). The Schoff family includes Gretchen’s brother-in-law, Arthur Schoff and his wife Mary Ann; and their four children. Also among the bereaved must be counted Professor Schoff’s former students and colleagues and many of her close friends who supported her family during her illness. There will be a visitation period from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, 1994 at the CRESS FUNERAL HOME, 3610 Speedway Road. Funeral services will be held at ll:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 14, 1994 at BETHAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, with a reception to follow. Burial will be at Forest Hill Cemetery. The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Bethel Lutheran Church Choir, the Bethel Horizons Campership Fund, the Nature Conservancy, or the International Crane Foundation.
Cress Funeral Service 3610 Speedway Road (608) 238-3434 http://www.cressfuneralservice.com