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STORIES
Fred Honebein
Kris Dressler and I met in the summer of 2001. We were both assistant coaches for the U19 rowing team that was going to compete at the U19 Championships in Duisberg, Germany. We knew each other professionally as he was an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin and I was the assistant ... continue
Cherie Carver
I met Dress when his son Wally was 2 and I had the good fortune to have Wally in my class. Wally broke his leg that year and would crawl and play in the rug while he was recuperating. I can still see him on the rug, doing his thing. Wally had a favorite power station (I think it was power station — Dress is laughing at ... continue
Akikazu Hashimoto
I am sure this is a feeling shared by many here, but the passing of Kris was a loss of a very special friend.The bond I shared with Kris was that of a fellow science/engineering nerd. We developed an understanding about being a nerd, and it was incredibly comforting. ... continue
Greg Nellis and Jaal Ghandhi, Professors in Mechanical Engineering.
Kris matriculated at UW-Madison in 1991 and, in his unique style, received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2003, six years after completing his coursework. He subsequently went on to co-found Laminar Technologies, which developed and marketed a high flow beer tap – an invention that he patented ... continue
Chris Maloney
Hi Wally and Cece, This is Amina and Iver's Nonna and boy do I have a story for you about your dad! Have you ever seen your dad without any hair on his head?? Well I have! It was a long time ago in 1992 when he was student at UW and he was on the rowing team. He was 19 years old. It was the end of the ... continue
Deb Lease
So, I've been mulling over what story to share about Kris Dressler for weeks. Cake fight? Something about skinny dipping? One of two stories about a duck inside of a house? But what I keep coming back to is a very small story that I'm sure even Kris wouldn't have remembered. When Francesca was ... continue
Carolyn Dressler
When your dad was born in July of 1973, we drove up to Black River Falls to visit with your grandparents and meet our new nephew. Here is a photo of me holding your dad when he was only a few days old. ... continue
Matt Younkle
Deep from the email archives, I thought I'd share a message that Dress wrote ahead of the massive McSWYDS event in 2004. "Bring whatever you think goes well with pig and beer" is the classic Dress line that the McSWYDS will never forget. Best to hear it in his words ... continue
Ann O'Brien
Who do you call to bring BACON to the Christmas brunch gathering? Who do you call when your 11 years old math whiz ALMOST QUALIFIES for eighth grade algebra, but not quite? Who do you call when you need a SOFA TRANSPORTED from the west side to the east side of town? ... continue
Claude Kazanski
Perhaps it was 2002 or sometime around then. We were sitting on our front porch having a beer, deep into the importance of spontaneity. That’s not to say having a beer with Dress was a spontaneous thing, though I guess it probably was in some cases; it’s more to say we were discussing ... continue
Sam Vanden Hogen
I can definitively say that without Dressler's guidance and mentorship, I would not be where I am today, either in life or in my career. It was Dressler who reignited my passion for engineering as a TA for an undergrad lab course I was in, and it was Dressler who helped guide me towards the lab where I would eventually work as an undergraduate researcher and then ... continue
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