August 2021

MADISON–Janet N. Schmock, 94, beloved wife, precious mother and great friend, passed away at home, at 702 Schmitt Place in Madison, on July 28, 2021, surrounded by her loving family.

Janet (nicknamed "Girlie" as a child) was born Jeanette Naomi Punswick on Feb. 28, 1927, to her devoted parents, Ellen (Dahl) and Erling Punswick, who was born Erling Johan Samuelsen and emigrated to America in 1884 from Lofoten on the northern coast of Norway. Janet was the second youngest of 10 children. She was born and raised on the family farm in the township of Vermont, in northwestern Dane County. The family lived through tough times with no running water or electricity in the early years. She was confirmed at Vermont Lutheran Church in 1939.

Agnes C. Acker, 92, passed away peacefully at home on May 11, 2020, surrounded by her family.  Agnes was born on Jan. 18, 1928, in Ashton, WI to Aloysius (Al) J. and Rose Elizabeth (Spahn) Meinholz.

She was the second of six children who grew up on the family dairy farm. Agnes loved to be outdoors, helping milk the cows (first by hand and later with a machine), and work in the fields. Her life-long love of horses began with the farm’s work-horse team. "On Sunday afternoons when friends and neighbors came to visit, I would hitch the team to a wagon and take them for rides" Agnes said during a 1983 interview.

Agnes attended St. Peter’s Catholic Elementary School in Ashton. She was a devoted Catholic and a member of St. John the Baptist Church in Waunakee for most of her adult life. She grew up a neighbor to her future husband, Ervin J. Acker, the son of John C. and Katherine (Ziegler) Acker, whom she married on May 25, 1948, at St. Peter’s in Ashton.

My daughter, who is seven, recently put on a sweatshirt, pulled the hood down low over her face, and pretended to gaze vacantly into an imaginary phone in her hand, oblivious to the magnificent world around her.

“Look at me, dad,” she said in an apathetic monotone, her best impersonation of a dullard. “I’m a teenager.”

It was funny, but also a bit darkly prescient, like me lying down on the ground and joking: “Look at me, I’m dead of old age.” The next stage of your life always seems exciting, until the final one, I guess.

I often feel like I am the luckiest person on the planet, because seven is not 16, and I still have this person here by my side, for a few more years, always ready for some new adventure or lesson or story. Always eager to investigate the next mystery, as the world gradually unfolds before her.

MIDDLETON–Many City of Middleton employees are unhappy with a proposed overhaul of the compensation plan that would drop longevity pay, the Common Council heard last week.

After holding two meetings at which some of the 69 city employees attending aired their views, Ald. Susan West told the Council it was clear that “we have an incredibility upset city staff.

“The biggest things that is making staff angry is taking away a benefit that was promised when they were hired, which is longevity pay,” she said.

When a promised benefit is taken away, “it’s demoralizing,” and the city needs to recognize its loyal employees and retain longevity pay, West said.

Longevity pay has been a perceived practice, but it was never promised in a contract, said Brian Wolhaupter, City of Middleton Human Resources Manager. Although the city continued to make contributions to employee benefits after passage of Act 10 in 2011 which no longer required it, Wolhaupter noted.