A few years ago, when the funding first got tough, on a day when I was feeling downtrodden, an email flew into my inbox like an angel on the wing. A colleague had written to tell me of an endowed chair. A few days later I got the call - come out and give us a seminar, stay a few days and see how you feel about it. My hosts were very gracious. They spoke of the difficulties in recruiting candidates to the mid-west from east coast institutions. As one faculty member there put it, they have to counter "The Stockholm Syndrome that keeps scientists from leaving institutions that are money-driven hollow vestiges of their former glorious academic past". Milwaukee perhaps had a harder time as for many it remains linked to Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer, and Fonzie (Henry Winkler), the star of the TV series, Happy Days .
I found Milwaukee to be an interesting town, a proud industrial behemoth built on "beers and gears", home to the producers of Miller's Ale and lawn mowers - not unlike the Manchester area where I grew up. The local bratwurst, heavy architecture, and stocky populace are all products of the bavarian diaspora that came here to farm at the turn of the century. It also has a lively counter culture, a veritable "east village-like" demi-monde centered around Brady Street. Its Historic Third Ward could compete with Soho for fashionable lofts and coffee shops and its central canal and new waterfront development aspire to an Amsterdam mode of living.
Three other things were persuasive. First the ladies. The position was to be endowed by friends of the deceased and it was clear that the decision rested firmly with the women. One, who was herself unwell, placed her hand on my arm in a way in a profound and inspiring way that conveyed - we trust and support you - do your best. Then there were the "lady riders". Milwaukee is the home of Harley Davidson, and the Lady Riders, as my hosts explained, were an highly effective fund-raising foundation of motor cyclists. The third was the Milwaukee Art Gallery. It houses a superb collection of expressionist German art but the building itself is truly spectacular. I could have stood all day in the soothing serenity of the dappled light that poured in through its oval window that opens on to the blue expanse of Lake Michigan. The Trustees had great insight to persuade the Spanish architect, Calatrava, to design their outside public space. He created a structure, somewhere between a sail and whales fin, that opens in a spectacular undulating motion reminiscent of a ray swimming. It is as awe-inspiring as the Sydney Opera House and a testiment both to the architect and the the burgher work ethic that strove to make possible such a truly magnificent building.
On my last visit the airport televisions blared stories of the endless foreclosures sweeping across the nation. Midwest airlines, who would have flown me back and forth cheaply to New York, with the dogs for free, went under. Endowments sank countrywide pitching academia into a brutal meltdown. So in the end I didnt go, but I save a soft spot for Milwaukee, its strong supportive women and its beautiful symbol of civic pride by "the shining big-sea water".
