Every so often, I come across the name of another accomplished actor, musician, athlete, entrepreneur, inventor, artist or public figure and discover the same curious footnote in the biography: Wisconsin.
After enough times, coincidence begins to seem like an inadequate explanation.
There is no official accounting of how many famous or nationally accomplished people Wisconsin has produced during the past half-century. Fame, after all, is nearly impossible to measure objectively. But even a casual examination reveals an impressive collection of people whose Wisconsin beginnings eventually led them onto national and international stages. The state has produced celebrated actors, musicians, athletes, artists, business leaders, journalists, scientists and innovators whose influence extends far beyond the borders of the Badger State.
Maybe there really is something in the water back there.
More likely, there is something in the culture.
Wisconsin has long been shaped by people accustomed to working with their hands, enduring difficult winters, building businesses, tending farms, operating factories and relying upon neighbors when circumstances demanded it. Generations of German, Scandinavian, Polish, Irish, Czech and other immigrant families helped establish communities where hard work, responsibility, craftsmanship and education became deeply rooted expectations.
Those values survived long after many of the farms became subdivisions and factories gave way to new industries.
Wisconsin also developed a distinctive relationship with success. Achievement was encouraged, but arrogance rarely traveled quite as well. There has traditionally been something admirable about doing your job exceptionally well without requiring everyone around you to hear about it.
Work hard. Show up. Finish what you started. Help somebody when they need it. Then get up tomorrow and do it again.
Simple ideas can have remarkable consequences when passed from one generation to another.
Consider some of the names connected to Wisconsin over the years. Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center and ultimately transformed modern architecture. Georgia O’Keeffe was born near Sun Prairie before becoming one of America’s most recognizable artists. Guitar pioneer Les Paul came from Waukesha and helped reshape modern music and recording technology. Orson Welles was born in Kenosha. Gene Wilder came from Milwaukee. Chris Farley came from Madison. Willem Dafoe came from Appleton.
The list extends far beyond entertainment and long beyond those generations.
Wisconsin’s influence also appears repeatedly throughout American popular culture. Milwaukee became the setting for television institutions including Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, while fictional Point Place, Wisconsin, became home to That ’70s Show. Movies and television programs continue to reference Wisconsin because the state occupies an interesting place in the American imagination. It is recognizable without being pretentious, distinctive without needing an introduction and familiar even to people who have never been there.
Then there are the Green Bay Packers.
One of the most recognizable franchises in professional sports calls a relatively small Wisconsin city home. In an era when major professional teams are overwhelmingly associated with enormous metropolitan markets and billionaire ownership, Green Bay remains an extraordinary exception. Somehow, that seems fitting.
Perhaps what makes Wisconsin remarkable is not simply the number of famous people who came from there, but the culture that encouraged ordinary people to believe there was dignity in doing something well.
Growing up around that mentality leaves an imprint.
After living in different parts of the country, I have come to appreciate how differently communities can approach work, ambition and responsibility. Oregon and the Pacific Northwest possess their own strengths, traditions and character, and comparing regions too broadly inevitably overlooks the countless hardworking people found everywhere. Still, moving away from the Midwest gave me a greater appreciation for the particular expectations surrounding work that were commonplace where I grew up.
You showed up when you said you would. If there was work remaining, you kept working. If something wasn’t right, you fixed it. If somebody needed help, you helped. None of that was considered particularly exceptional.
It was simply expected.
Those expectations followed me west.
In many respects, they became part of the philosophy behind this newspaper. Publishing news every day requires considerably more work than readers ever see. Stories develop at inconvenient hours. Information changes. Telephone calls have to be made, documents have to be examined, facts have to be checked and tomorrow’s newspaper does not particularly care how exhausting today happened to be.
There is always another edition.
That is where the Wisconsin in me probably shows the most.
The goal has never been perfection, because no newspaper can honestly promise it. The goal is effort, consistency and the willingness to keep improving. It means taking the responsibility seriously enough to show up every day and produce something worthwhile for the community that chooses to read it.
Perhaps that same philosophy helps explain why so many people with Wisconsin roots have traveled so far.
The famous names are impressive, but I suspect they tell only a fraction of the story. Wisconsin’s greater accomplishment may be the millions of people whose names will never appear on a marquee, television screen or list of notable Americans. They built houses, raised families, taught children, ran businesses, worked assembly lines, tended farms, plowed roads, served communities and quietly handed their standards to another generation.
Some of those children eventually became famous.
Most didn’t.
Both carried something with them.
I certainly did.
So perhaps there isn’t anything unusual in Wisconsin’s water after all. Maybe what Wisconsin has been producing all these years is something considerably harder to bottle: an expectation that whatever you decide to do, you roll up your sleeves, do it well and never become too important to remember where you came from.
That is a piece of Wisconsin I am proud to have brought with me.
And it remains part of what drives this newspaper every single day.