Former dean of UW-Madison's School of Business James Hickman, 79, died Sept. 10 of liver cancer.
Hickman was dean of the School of Business from 1985-'90, an instrumental time for the school, as he was largely responsible for convincing David Grainger to donate $9 million to build the school's home, Grainger Hall, according to UW Foundation vice president Don Gray.
""In the mid-'80s when we began the project to raise funding for Grainger Hall, it was much through his efforts that that happened,"" Gray said of Hickman. ""So he really was kind of the hero for the whole project.""
According to Gray, Hickman traveled to Grainger's residence in Skokie, Ill. several times throughout the process of garnering support for the hall.
""There were a lot of alumni who were really drawn into the school by Jim Hickman at that time,"" said current UW-Madison School of Business dean, Michael Knetter. ""We reached out more and started to probably use our alumni to help the school more than we ever had in the past. And that legacy certainly has continued to this day—Jim was a great dean.""
