On Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, Carroll University's Main Dining Room was officially dedicated in honor of one of the most beloved members of the Carroll family—Gert Ullsperger. Verde! has also been reimagined into Gert's Grab 'N Go, a new convenience store for our campus community.
Gert is the morning cashier at the Main Dining Room and has been a dedicated Carroll employee for the past five decades. Her tenure spans over five different food service companies and seven university presidents. Gert is 92 years young and this year marks her fifty-fourth year on the job.
Each day, Gert greets nearly 900 customers with a smile as they enter the dining room, setting the tone for the day. She tries to get to know and remember their names and laughs easily with those nearly 70 years her junior. A few years ago, Jim Stingl from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interviewed Gert for an article about her fiftieth anniversary at Carroll. He described the essence of Gert in one short sentence. "She truly is sunshine with a nametag," he said.
Beyond the dining room, Gert is an active patron supporting the campus and its students. She threw out the inaugural pitch at Kilgour Field in 2014 when it opened for the first women’s softball game. She attends our annual Homecoming parade waiving at the crowd and spreading her Pioneer pride. Gert loves to take part in the action, wherever our students and alumni may be.
Gert has three children, eight grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and about 3,400 student grandchildren—and thousands more counting her alumni grandchildren.
The Carroll University Pioneer family is grateful to Gert Ullsperger for all the morning greetings, smiles, hugs and more she has given over the years. We are honored to celebrate her legacy from now on in the Gert Ullsperger Main Dining Room and at Gert's Grab 'N Go!
See more photos from the celebration here
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