Willa M. Menck, 91
Willa, our Freya has set sail for Valhalla at the age of 91. Willa departed on Friday, April 12 from her treasured Cedarburg home designed and built with beloved husband Werner. Willa was a proud and loud University of Wisconsin-Madison Kappa Alpha Theta, Wauwatosa East High School Red Arrow Girl and legendary Cedarburg High School Hall Monitor.
Willa enjoyed keen intellectual banter with her family, friends and students. As an English teacher Willa possessed a Shakespearean philosophy and often recited valued words of the Bard of Avon.
"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"
Willa grew up in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin during the happy days of the 1950's where she attended Wauwatosa East High School. As a precocious teen Willa was a femme fatale who enjoyed the spotlight as a figure skater, often traveling on her own by rail to train with top figure skating coaches in Chicago, Illinois and Rochester, Minnesota.
After graduating from Tosa East, Willa became a proud Bucky Badger attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she learned to drink beer, enjoyed dancing and singing on Bascom Hill, riding a homecoming parade float as a Badger Beauty and graduating with a degree in Education. Upon graduation from UW-Madison Willa began teaching English, Speech, Forensics and One-Act Play at Waterford High School and Brookfield Central High before marrying her Tosa East classmate Werner H. Menck.
Willa and Werner's marriage was a strong merger. Willa was a tough and savvy partner who took pride operating as an executive's wife and raising her family while living in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Concord, Massachusetts and Barrington, Illinois.
At sixty years old after raising her children and moving to Cedarburg, Willa staged her comeback as an educator returning to monitor the halls of Cedarburg High School. Known to countless students as the infamous Buzzcut or Bruiser Willa became a legend challenging and outwitting students cruising the halls of CHS with sly stealth. Many believed the legend that Willa had eyes in the back of her head by demonstrating her uncanny ability to track them in her halls. But for Willa becoming a hall monitor was about much more than busting and writing up kids. It was about talking with and getting to know her students while encouraging and motivating them to discover their value and express themselves in their unique way. She often dazzled students in the halls of CHS by demonstrating her stag jump or reciting passages from The Canterbury Tales in Middle English.
Willa is now in Valhalla with her husband Werner and parents Elmer and Jessie Widerborg. To carry on she leaves her children son Eric, daughter-in-law Laura, daughters Linda and Jessica Claire and her little sister Rhea Kalkhoff. Along with her family Willa's feisty friends Roberta, Suzanne and Cindy gave her a life filled with fika and hygge.
If Willa "Buzzcut-Bruiser" Menck made some impact on your life raise a glass to celebrate her life and immortal spirit. In lieu of flowers please consider making a contribution to the Cedarburg Education Foundation to support Willa's legacy of assisting students in discovering their value and achieving their potential.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
SKOL WILLA