When John Stollenwerk sold Allen-Edmonds Shoe Company in July, he reaped the benefits of a good investment. He bought the company in 1980 for $1.3 million and sold it 26 years later for about $100 million. If Stollenwerk’s new plan comes to fruition, this business move will also benefit Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Stollenwerk, a longtime supporter of Catholic school education, is chairman of the archbishop’s Advisory Board for Catholic Schools.
“I have 18 years of Catholic education,” said Stollenwerk, a member of Lumen Christi Parish, Mequon. “From St. Jude’s grade school through graduate school at Marquette University, all of my family has attended or are currently attending Catholic schools, so we’re great believers in Catholic schools. They are the best in education. They educate what we would consider the whole man. They’re a proven entity, so it’s bothersome when someone goes across the street and starts a (public) school, when the proven entity has to struggle for funds.”
Stollenwerk expressed concern and shock when discussing declining enrollment in Catholic schools.
“This is a unique organization that should not be lost today,” he said. “These schools should have waiting lists for the product they turn out.”
The current plan to make a large donation to Catholic education has been a few decades in the making for the Stollenwerk family. Stollenwerk said that 26 years ago he hoped he would someday be able to give a large gift to the archdiocesan schools that helped him.
“We always thought that sometime if we were blessed, we, and this is my whole family, not just me, (would donate),” he explained. “We’re interested in supporting Catholic schools, specifically inner-city and rural schools.”
After 26 years at Allen-Edmonds, Stollenwerk felt the time was right to do the one thing he’d always wanted to do.
“I’m 66 and I wanted to move on and do something else in life, and we always had the dream of doing something for Catholic schools,” he said. “… Our object is to give back to the community who gave back to us.”
Via City of Steeples, and then Shrine of the Holy Whapping
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