Lee Sherman Dreyfus

Lee Sherman Dreyfus
Inducted: 2006

His “second” career as politician and Wisconsin Governor made him famous throughout the State, but that career was built on over a quarter century in radio and television performing, education and station management. He began his “first” career at age 8 as a child actor on Milwaukee’s WISN radio in 1933. After U.S. Navy service in the mid-1940’s, he began his broadcast education career, earning Bachelors’, Masters and PhD degrees from UW-Madison. He was a Communications Instructor at UW-Madison from 1949-52 when he moved to Wayne State University in Detroit, to head its Communications Department and manage its radio station, WDET. In 1962, he returned to UW-Madison and during the next 5 years managed WHA-TV, created a new Mass Communications Department and led the group that developed the plan for the State’s 6-station Public TV network. In 1967, he became President of the UW-Stevens Point, where one of his first acts was to launch radio station, WWSP-FM, as a student run station. In 1977, he was elected Governor of the State of Wisconsin, a position he held until he declined to run for reelection in 1982.