Sandy Wilcox '66
Andrew A. "Sandy" Wilcox, Jr. graduated from Hanover in 1966 as an English major. He is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha, which he served as vice president. He was Student Senate president, a resident assistant, and a member of (among others) The Triangle editorial board, the Perspectives on America Committee, and the President's Committee on Student Life. He was honored with the John Finley Crowe Citation for Scholarship and General Excellence.
Immediately after graduation, Sandy was commissioned into the U.S. Navy and served as navigator of the USS Blue and then officer-in-charge of a "swift boat" in Vietnam. In the latter role, he earned a Bronze Star with Combat "V" and the Navy Combat Action Medal.
Sandy began his career in higher education leadership in 1970. He served his alma mater as director of alumni relations, then as director of development before his 1974 move to Chicago to become director of special programs for Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. He earned his law degree from Loyola University in 1979.
Sandy became vice president of charitable management services at Continental Illinois Bank in 1977. There, he arranged the funding for the Richter Grant program, which provided hundreds of Hanover students with opportunities to explore self-designed learning experiences outside the College curriculum for 25 years.
After serving as director of the legal section in the Office of Development at Stanford University, Sandy became president of the University of Wisconsin Foundation in 1988. Under his leadership, the foundation's assets have grown from $190 million to more than $2 billion. The foundation is consistently ranked in the top 10 of all higher education fund development entities, and in 2004, it received more than $457 million in gifts.
Sandy is a member of the Board of Directors of Reilly Enterprises in Indianapolis and of the Evjue Foundation in Madison, Wis. He and his wife, the former Melinda Meadows '68, live in Madison.