Thomas Evans Brittingham, Jr.

Thomas Brittingham, Jr. was the public face of the Brittingham Fund, and seemed to be more actively involved its management than either of his siblings. After attending Hotchkiss, a private preparatory school in Connecticut, Tom returned to attend UW-Madison. Active in the Chi Psi fraternity as well as playing first mandolin in the school's Mandolin Society, Tom graduated in 1921. After the death of his first wife, Mildred Candy, Tom married another Wisconsin graduate, Margaret (Peg) Cummins, with whom he had two children.

Tom acquired notoriety in certain circles when he was named co-winner of the Barron's Widow's Contest, which involved a hypothetical investment situation spanning ten years. He turned this financial acumen to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which he co-founded with eight other alumni in 1925. The group, which he also served as a board member and president, was inspired by Dr. Harry Steenbock's work on the synthesis of Vitamin D; its purpose was to support scientific research geared toward acquiring patents. Tom's unconventional investment strategies lead to remarkable growth for WARF; he astonished the public when he announced, in 1957, that he had increased its capital from $900 to $29 million.¹⁴

Under the supervision of Tom and Margaret, the Brittingham Fund supported both the arts and the sciences, including the work of Dr. Fred Mohs, John Stuart Curry, Gunnar Johansen, the Pro Arte Quartet, and Professor Alexander Meikeljohn in the Experimental College (though, in a controversial move, funding for Meikeljohn's work was withdrawn after four years and the Experimental College closed soon thereafter).

Tom was a charter member of the UW Foundation and later became President of its Board of Trustees. He followed in his mother's footsteps by serving as vice president of the Alumni Association's Board of Directors in 1949. The following year he was elected president. Tom also had a very real impact on the landscape of the university, donating one-third of the money needed to build the new Alumni House in 1951, and purchasing the Eagle Heights tract to donate to the school. He received an honorary LLD degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1952, as well as one from the University of Delaware in 1959.