Nicholas Burckel

Nicholas Burckel established the Arthur and Irene Burckel Scholarship Fund to honor his parents by providing financial assistance to graduate students in the School of Information Science at UWM. Arthur Burckel was the oldest of three boys born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. His father’s early death forced his mother to place the boys in an orphanage. Arthur briefly attended high school but left after his sophomore year to begin working to support the family. Irene Dorsey Burckel was born across the Ohio River in Jeffersonville, Indiana, the youngest of three children. She completed high school at Nazareth Academy in Kentucky. Arthur and Irene married and had two children, Robert and Nicholas. Although neither of the boys’ parents attended college, they inspired their children to do so. Because of health problems, Arthur was unemployed for many years and the family was reliant on Irene’s jobs as a department store clerk, elementary school teacher, and executive secretary at a public high school, a tobacco company, and a brokerage firm.

Because of Arthur and Irene’s commitment to education, the boys prospered in high school and then won scholarships to college (Robert to Notre Dame and Nicholas to Georgetown). Robert received his PhD in mathematics from Yale University and Nicholas received his PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nicholas later received his MLS degree from UW-Milwaukee. Both boys spent their careers in academe. Neither would have been able to attend college if not for scholarship assistance.