Joseph & Linda Russell; Bruce Russell & June Magnussen
Watertech of America combines total system management with chemical and equipment expertise for the treatment of water and wastewater for the industrial and commercial markets. Eugene “Gene” VandenHeuvel founded Watertech of America in 1980 and led the company until 1998.Joe Russell, UWM CEAS ’90 and current president, was first hired by Gene VandenHeuvel while he was a water engineering student at UWM, and likes to think of himself as the first “water” co-op student at UWM. Gene VandenHuevel made a profound impact on his life, as well as on the lives of many Watertech employees and clients through the years.
Impact
Together with Gene’s friends and family, Joe and Linda Russell, Bruce Russel and June Magnussen, and Watertech of America seek to honor the memory and legacy Gene VadenHuevel created in his company by establishing the first endowed scholarship in UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences. According to Joe and Linda, Gene would have been very pleased to know his legacy would help current and future water students for decades to come.