Tack and Ascent: Navigating waves and rising to awesome heights have defined alumnus Frederick “Fritz” Wenzel’s career—as well as his favorite pastimes.
By Jeanne Nagle | November 2024
During a long, distinguished career that included stints as a researcher, health care manager, leader and teacher, Fritz Wenzel ’56 authored or coauthored numerous scientific papers, plus a couple of books for good measure. Were he so inclined, and maybe feeling a bit puckish, one suspects he could also just as easily write a volume titled “Lessons Learned From My Leisure Pursuits.” Featured prominently in that particular book would be chapters featuring two of his favorite activities: Sailing and mountain climbing.
Using remarks gleaned from a recent interview, Wenzel shares bits of wisdom connected to his extracurricular passions. These items are subsequently followed by real-life examples of how such lessons have come into play over the course of his remarkable career and life.
“Sailing teaches one many things about life,” says Wenzel, who has been a self-proclaimed “ardent sailor” since his undergrad days at what is now the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Among the lessons imparted by his experiences on the open water are:
- Several components, working in concert, are necessary to successfully move a boat forward.
“To be successful, you have to combine the helm, the sail and the keel,” says Wenzel. “In life, we have the same kinds of forces that help us determine in what direction we should head.”
Wenzel’s career helm came in the form of a biochemical pathologist and researcher he knew as a youth in Marshfield, where he was raised. Conversations with the doctor sparked Wenzel’s interest in chemistry and steered him toward a career in research. The mainsail of his education rose when he enrolled at Central State Teachers College in nearby Stevens Point, and was set when he declared a major in biochemistry (and, incidentally, a minor in English).
At Central State, Dr. Roland Trytten was a powerful wind in that sail. The professor also served as a steadying helm, which kept the educational boat from blowing off course or being swamped.
“We were in the classroom together,” Wenzel says of Trytten. “We went to lunch together and spent a great deal of time talking about chemistry, especially that which related to human beings. I’ll never forget him. He was a true friend and mentor.”
Along the same lines, Wenzel recalls something his late wife, Mary Ann, said that pertains to teamwork and safely navigating life’s waters: “You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust the sails.”
“My dear wife was not a sailor,” he says, “but she steered the family in the right direction.”
Everything runs smoother when the crew works together toward a charted destination.
“While one can sail alone,” Wenzel says, “it is best to sail with the team. That is the safest and most comfortable way to go.”
At the Marshfield Clinic lab, Wenzel collaborated with fellow researchers and medical professionals, logging countless hours on an impressive array of studies—many of which yielded life-changing, if not life-saving, results. He was instrumental in isolating a microorganism responsible for a disease called “farmer’s lung,” which had left many patients in central and northern Wisconsin short of breath and largely debilitated. His involvement in the study of a lung disease caused by pulmonary embolism led to participation in national trials that tested treatment approaches. Wenzel also proudly notes his role on the team “that established open-heart surgery” at the clinic.
“I had two aims as I received my bachelor of science degree in biochemistry from the university,” he says. “The first was to pursue a career in research and the second was to go on to some graduate studies that would support my interest in research. For a number of reasons, I never quite completed the second aim because life happens and things change.”
Which brings us to the next sailing/life lesson:
- Sailors must be ready and able to roll with the winds of change.
“Headwinds often prevent us from moving toward our goal,” Wenzel notes, “so we have to come at it from different directions. Life is pretty much the same as we go through our careers.”
Wenzel didn’t exactly encounter headwinds, which oppose forward progress. His situation back in the 1950s might better be described as a diversion—and a fortuitous one at that.
“While working in research, I found that I had a natural ability in management,” he says. “That led to a number of changes in my career.”
Wenzel was first named Director of Laboratories at the Marshfield Clinic, then Executive Director of the Marshfield Medical Foundation (now the Marshfield Clinic Research Instituter). After more than a decade in each of those positions, he was name Executive Director and CEO of the Clinic proper.
To hear Wenzel tell it, the move from researcher to health care executive really wasn’t as big of a change as it might seem.
“One way or another,” he says, “the key is to continue the mantra that ‘the patient is number one,’ whether it starts from the research laboratory or the treatment room.”
The change in direction didn’t completely deter Wenzel from his charted course, however. While he never received his planned graduate degree in research, he did earn an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, in 1979.
That was little more than a decade before he took up the sport of mountain climbing. (The first peak he conquered was Washington State’s Mount Rainer, in 1990.) While Wenzel’s tenure as a mountain climber didn’t match the longevity of his days as a sailor—the nonagenarian retired from the first endeavor a few years back, but he sails to this day—his passion for each is met ounce for ounce.
As with sailing, Wenzel maintains there are takeaways from climbing that are germane to how a person conducts his or her life as well.
- Conditioning, in body and mind, as well as faith in one’s abilities are crucial to a successful climb.
“It is not simply training for one event, but continuously keeping in shape so that you don’t have to start from the beginning before each climb,” says Wenzel.
One presumes that’s much the same philosophy he imparted when he taught business students at several universities, most notably with the University of Colorado in Denver (1987-2020) and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota (1996-2010), where he was a cofounder of the MBA Program in Healthcare Management. He also served as a preceptor in the College of Public Policy and Administration at UWSP (1980-99).
“The rewards from teaching are incredible,” Wenzel says. “Working with young people to enable them to climb the ladder of success is exceedingly rewarding. Motivation and learning go together, and it is the faculty’s responsibility to provide both.”
- Climbers must trust and rely on each other to safely reach the summit.
“A great advantage of mountain climbing is that it teaches us the value of working together and interdependence on one another,” Wenzel notes. “It also gives us a new appreciation for what life is really all about and brings us closer to those we love.”
Doing for others is a trait Wenzel says he, his children and grandchildren all learned by example from his wife. Accordingly, his CV is chock-full of health care, education and charitable affiliations, past and present. Included among several other groups are the American Heart Association and the Medical Group Management Association, as well as the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation and its Health Care Authority.
Wenzel currently is active on the boards of Livanta LLC, Health Quality Partners (chair) and the Yahara Lakes Association (treasurer). Previously, he had served for nine years on the board of the Marshfield Clinic Health Care System. At the university, he has served as an emeritus member of the UWSP Foundation board and president of Point’s Academy of Letters and Sciences. He recently included UWSP in his estate plan as well.
“I think that when we reach the pearly gates and are greeted by St. Peter, he will more than likely ask us not about our achievement but what was it that we did for others,” says Wenzel. “To me that is the reason for my service to others, philanthropy and commitment to community involvement. It is all about the love of our fellow man and the things that we do to express that love.”
