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Martin Wanserski

Martin Wanserski
Residing In: USA
Martin Wanserski

Yearbook

Attending Reunion

Yes

Memories submitted at the 40th Reunion - July, 2002:

Martin Wanserski
Hello, I'm Martin Wanserski, a 1962 graduate from St. Catherines - I will be able to attend the reunion. Here is some personal information as requested by the announcement.
I've lived in Vermillion, South Dakota for the past 25 years where I teach in the art department University of South Dakota. It's amazing to me that I've spent more years of my life here than in Wisconsin. My two sons live in Milwaukee, WI where they attend school at the UWM art department. My older son graduated summer 2001; the younger son has about a year and a half left.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. I've debated with myself all my life. After graduation I wanted to study either nursing or art. Since my math grades at St. Catherine's were so bad, I figured that I would never make it through the required chemistry. I chose to study art at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, WI.
It was during my sophomore year at Layton that I started dating Mary Tressa Sieger. She was a beautiful fellow student from Kenosha, WI. We married in 1967 during my second year of graduate study at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. With the draft and my own graduation becoming evident it was again time to make decisions. I come from a family of sailors so in order to be "different” I considered the Air Force. Mary suggested we try the Peace Corps.
? ps, It seemed like a good idea so that's the direction we went in the summer of 1968. That summer we spent three months in National City, CA living with a Mexican?American family and studying Spanish. In September we moved to Bogota, Colombia and were there for two years.
When we returned to the United States I wanted to live in New York City as I felt all serious artists must do. We floundered around for a while until Mary suggested we move to Chicago. We moved to Chicago. We lived there for three years and had one child, a boy. I was able to get a job teaching in the Art Department of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD. so we moved there in 1975. In 1977 we had one more son.
In 1987 Mary and I were divorced. She moved to Milwaukee with the two boys. In 1988 Mary died of an aneurysm and without Mary's help in making decisions and to lean on, I moved the boys back to Vermillion. Nick and Aaron now live in Milwaukee.
I hope to retire from Vermillion in four years.
What have the past 58 years of life's experiences taught me? Life is both mathematically complex and spiritually simple. It's best to do what you can to grasp its wonders and joys and fears and sorrows.