Elizabeth Wenger Hickman

Elizabeth “Liz” Alice Wenger Hickman of Madison died at home surrounded by family on September 29, 2025, at the age of eighty-one. She was born in Madison on July 12, 1944, to Alfred Paul Wenger and Eleanor Louise Carlton Wenger, and spent her childhood successively in DeForest, Waukesha, and Portage. Liz graduated from Portage High School in 1962 and earned a B.S. in education from the University of Wisconsin in 1966 as part of the third generation of her family to graduate from the UW.

Liz began her career teaching geology lab sections at UW Oshkosh, then sailed in 1967 to New Zealand, where she taught general science for one year at Mana College in Wellington. After leaving New Zealand she worked for Broken Hill Proprietary Company in Melbourne and in Western Australia as a geologist. On returning to the United States in 1970 she undertook graduate studies in geology at the University of Wisconsin, earning an M.S. in economic geology in 1973. While in graduate school, Liz met her future husband, Robert “Bob” Gunn Hickman, and the pair married in 1972.

Liz and Bob moved to Southern California in 1974, where Liz worked as a geologist for Minerals Exploration, Union Oil Company until her daughters were born. She returned to the workforce to teach geology at California State University, Fullerton, then was a public-school substitute teacher before accepting a permanent position teaching physical science at El Camino Real Continuation High School. Following the family’s relocation to the Houston area in 1995, Liz was proud to join the staff of Rice University, first as an administrative assistant at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, and subsequently as an administrator and later a grant coordinator in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. She retired from Rice University in 2010 and returned to Madison with Bob in 2015.

Liz was a woman of determination and unmatched work ethic, whose approach to life was reflected in her annual back-to-school advice to her daughters to “sit in the front row and ask lots of questions.” Outside of her work life, she shared her gifts through active participation in the PTA and her daughters’ youth activities, teaching grade schoolers how to pan for gold and conducting geology education for girl scout troops, as well as organizing conferences for local high school girls on careers in the sciences. With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Liz read widely, was a passionate follower of current events, a collector of recipes, and a world traveler. She was keenly interested in technology, and often one of the earliest adopters in her family of any new technology or gadget. In retirement, Liz enjoyed genealogy, especially as it allowed her to find “new” cousins and expand the family. She was enormously proud of her three grandsons, and we would be remiss if we did not take this occasion to tell you on her behalf how charming, smart, and athletically gifted they are. Liz loved a party, a holiday, an occasion, a ceremony, or a parade, and enjoyed giving gifts and picking up guests at the airport with great fanfare. Our lives will be less colorful without her.

Liz is survived by her husband, Bob, and daughter Ellen Hickman, both of Madison, her daughter Susan Skoe (Anders) and grandsons Erik, Paul, and Jacob Skoe of Auckland, New Zealand, sisters Nancy (Dan) Dicklich of New Lisbon, and Susan Wenger of Portage, brother Rolf Wenger of Grimes, Iowa, brother-in-law Ken Shaw of Corvallis, Oregon, as well as a niece, two nephews, and a host of friends.

Liz was preceded in death by her parents, by her brother Carlton P. Wenger, and by her sister-in-law Judith Hickman Shaw.

The family plans to gather to celebrate Liz’s life at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Jonathan Clark House Museum of Mequon Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education, or your local food bank. Liz’s family would like to thank her caregivers from Ohana Care, especially Joan Smithback, for their care of Liz.