Retired pharmacist makes $1 million gift to School of Pharmacy

Lenor Zeeh, who had a long career with Rennebohm Pharmacy in Madison, has made a $1 million gift to the Lenor Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Pharmacy.

Zeeh, 92, says of his gift, “Pharmacy is a great profession, and these students who are going into it now are so talented. I’m glad to help in any way I can.”

The Pharmaceutical Experiment Station is in its second incarnation. It was started in 1913 by state statute “to be responsible for production, research, development and supply of medicinals for the improvement of health care in the state.” Lack of funding caused the station to lapse in the 1930s. It was restarted and named for Zeeh through a $1.5 million gift from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation in 2001 and re-opened in the School of Pharmacy’s new Rennebohm Hall in 2003.

Today, the Lenor Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station serves the needs of pharmaceutical development on campus and beyond. The station offers a variety of critical laboratory services to support preclinical development of promising drug candidates discovered at UW–Madison or in the private sector. The station has an academic mission as well, providing wide-ranging training in the overall drug development process to scientists in the pharmaceutical industry and, soon, to students in the professional pharmacy program and the graduate program in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“Lenor Zeeh, a 1936 alum of the UW School of Pharmacy, has been a lifelong friend, adviser and benefactor of the school,” says Jeanette Roberts, dean of the School of Pharmacy. “His gift to the Pharmaceutical Experiment Station will dramatically accelerate our ability to make key contributions to the drug-development process, ultimately benefiting patients in Wisconsin and beyond. It is a truly transformational gift, and we deeply appreciate his profound generosity and dedication to the School of Pharmacy.”

Zeeh says that his life in pharmacy started with an educator’s suggestion. “I’m from a small town in Crawford County called Wauzeka,” he says. “I graduated from high school and didn’t know what I wanted to do. The principal said that maybe I’d like pharmacy, so I signed up to go to pharmacy school.”

But after finishing his course work, Zeeh was in a bind. “The law said at that time that I had to work for a year at a drug store before I could take the state board exam.” But no one would hire him without experience.

He made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get a job with Rennebohm Pharmacies. “My dad, who ran a general store, told me I had to get a job or drop out,” he says.

Zeeh tried one more time, and Oscar Rennebohm agreed to see him. “It was 10 or 15 minutes with him, but it felt like an hour,” Zeeh says. “He asked me many questions about my father, who ran that general store. At the end of the interview, he said, ‘Tell anyone who needs to know that you’ll have a job here in the fall.'”

Zeeh was employed in many facets by Rennebohm’s from 1935-80, when the locally owned business was sold to Walgreens. One memorable stint was as manager of the location at State and Lake streets. “The students were great customers, and we cashed a lot of their checks,” he says. “They started calling me ‘the banker.'”

He moved on to supervise the stores and eventually became a corporate officer. Zeeh has received both the Alumnus of the Year and an Honorary Citation from the School of Pharmacy and is the sole recipient of the Dean’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He served for many years on the school’s board of visitors and continues on the board to this day as an emeritus member. He also sits on the board of the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation.

“We are thrilled with the moral — not to mention financial — support that Mr. Zeeh’s gift represents,” says Lynn Van Campen, director of the Zeeh Station. “The Zeeh Station will live for a long time to come, with a unique mission that will serve many across the campus, in local industry and beyond. This could not have happened without Lenor Zeeh, and the support and inspiration he had earlier provided for the Rennebohm Foundation startup support.”

Zeeh has two children, Peter Zeeh and Patricia Risser, who are both lawyers and graduates of the UW–Madison Law School. “I’m happy that this station will live on with my name on it, even if the name wasn’t my idea. I’m so happy for everything the university has done for me and for my profession.”