Bob Joers Family Memorial Scholarship
Purpose
We have established this opportunity to contribute to the Bob Joers Family Memorial Scholarship to honor Bob’s lifelong love of sports, his larger than life presence in the community and his dedication to his career. Bob’s sports career began in high school when he joined the swim team at Milwaukee Tech and also Schroeder Aquatic Club. He excelled in this sport and continued to swim at UW-Madison where, after graduation, he quickly transitioned to coaching. During his 20+ years of coaching, he had the privilege of touching thousands of lives and was never happier than when he was walking the deck, whistling with his trademark whistle, to encourage and cheer for his swimmers. His natural ability to bring out the best in people through this encouragement was also one of the reasons he excelled at being an owner of The Little Gym of Middleton as well as the Athletic Director for Middleton High School. When Bob was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on October 29, 2019, he immediately vowed to do whatever he could to completely eradicate this disease from his body. Considering he was a previous Ironman competitor, we fully expected him to cross that finish line successfully. Unfortunately, fate dealt us another blow when the cancer was found to have spread in March, 2020. With the knowledge that a different finish line was going to be crossed, we knew that there would be many who would want to honor him for all that he brought to this world during his short, but brilliant, 56 year life. We talked about this and decided the most fitting tribute would be an annual scholarship given to each Middleton High School Male and Female Student Athlete of the Year. Bob fully supported this idea. We would like to start offering this scholarship in Spring 2021 and will proceed according to funding with updates to come as to who the future award winners are. Nothing would make Bob happier than to know that a student athlete who has put in the work will be rewarded for an outstanding high school career both inside and outside of the classroom. One of Bob’s favorite things to say was “Be an athlete.” This scholarship supports his vision of that as well as the importance of a solid education. It is with sincere gratitude that we thank you for your support not only of this scholarship but of our family as we are able to fulfill Bob’s wishes to acknowledge student athletes who gain so much from participating in high school athletics while juggling the demands of schoolwork. Our three children, Alex, Brett and Mattie benefitted so much from participating in extra-curricular activities while in high school and this is a way we can all offer a way for others to benefit even more. #standtallforbob Gifts to the Bob Joers Family Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to Middleton High School who will use the funds to award college scholarships to each Student Athlete of the Year.
We have established this opportunity to contribute to the Bob Joers Family Memorial Scholarship to honor Bob’s lifelong love of sports, his larger than life presence in the community and his dedication to his career. Bob’s sports career began in high school when he joined the swim team at Milwaukee Tech and also Schroeder Aquatic Club. He excelled in this sport and continued to swim at UW-Madison where, after graduation, he quickly transitioned to coaching. During his 20+ years of coaching, he had the privilege of touching thousands of lives and was never happier than when he was walking the deck, whistling with his trademark whistle, to encourage and cheer for his swimmers. His natural ability to bring out the best in people through this encouragement was also one of the reasons he excelled at being an owner of The Little Gym of Middleton as well as the Athletic Director for Middleton High School. When Bob was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on October 29, 2019, he immediately vowed to do whatever he could to completely eradicate this disease from his body. Considering he was a previous Ironman competitor, we fully expected him to cross that finish line successfully. Unfortunately, fate dealt us another blow when the cancer was found to have spread in March, 2020. With the knowledge that a different finish line was going to be crossed, we knew that there would be many who would want to honor him for all that he brought to this world during his short, but brilliant, 56 year life. We talked about this and decided the most fitting tribute would be an annual scholarship given to each Middleton High School Male and Female Student Athlete of the Year. Bob fully supported this idea. We would like to start offering this scholarship in Spring 2021 and will proceed according to funding with updates to come as to who the future award winners are. Nothing would make Bob happier than to know that a student athlete who has put in the work will be rewarded for an outstanding high school career both inside and outside of the classroom. One of Bob’s favorite things to say was “Be an athlete.” This scholarship supports his vision of that as well as the importance of a solid education. It is with sincere gratitude that we thank you for your support not only of this scholarship but of our family as we are able to fulfill Bob’s wishes to acknowledge student athletes who gain so much from participating in high school athletics while juggling the demands of schoolwork. Our three children, Alex, Brett and Mattie benefitted so much from participating in extra-curricular activities while in high school and this is a way we can all offer a way for others to benefit even more. #standtallforbob Gifts to the Bob Joers Family Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to Middleton High School who will use the funds to award college scholarships to each Student Athlete of the Year.