Finding Aid for John Entorf Personal Papers, 1983-1989

The son of Paul and Nora Entorf, John Entorf was born January 16, 1931, in Chinook Mont. He attended Northern Montana College, in Harve, Montana, where he received his B.S. degree. He married Gwen A. Sweeney on July 31, 1957. He taught at Bellvue, Washington and Missoula, Montana before returning to further his education at Texas A&M, where he earned both a masters and doctorate degrees. He moved his family to Menomonie in 1967 where he began teaching at UW- Stout and was later promoted to Assistant Dean of Industry and Technology. During his 22 years at Stout, he had many accomplishments. A leading economic development figure in Wisconsin, he was widely known for establishing ties between education and industry in the state. He was the founder and director of the Center for Innovation and Development, a facility designed to deliver various university services to private enterprises. He played a key role in developing the University Business and Industrial Professor Program. There are currently 40 such professors at Stout. He established and served as executive director of SETAC, a data-based information exchange program that is available to the private sector. He was also the principal founder of the Stout Economic Development Committee. Under his leadership, UW - Stout successfully completed a major project at Case IH in Wausau, helping the firm to retool its plant into a modern heavy equipment manufacturing facility. He served as a key campus contact for the state's Department of Development for Forward Wisconsin and for economic development activities conducted by the governor’s office. He wrote the program statement for Stout's applied technology major and its secondary resource program, as well as a program statement for an engineering degree, and established the B.S. degree in construction at UW - Stout. He left Stout in July 1989 to a position as dean at Boise State University in Idaho.This collection includes correspondence, information on the Technical Computing Service Center, Western Wisconsin 2000, and economic development committee minutes