Dick Traxler Memorial Education Scholarship

The Dick Traxler Memorial Education Scholarship was established in the Winona State University Foundation to benefit students who are majoring in education who show great promise to become an inspirational teacher.

Criteria

Each recipient must be an undergraduate student enrolled full-time and in good standing at Winona State University (minimum of 12 credits per semester)
Each recipient must be a declared Education major
Each recipient must be a Junior, Senior or 5th year student
Each recipient must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0

Biography/Motivation

After graduating from Cannon Falls High School in 1940, LaVerne (Dick) Traxler, entered Winona Teachers College. He completed just two years of school before Uncle Sam called on him to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Air, where he spent three and a half years in the service before his discharge in 1946. It was that summer that Dick married his wife, Valeria, and returned to Winona, MN to finish his schooling. He graduated from Winona Teachers College in 1948 with degrees in Physical Education and History. Dick took his first teaching job in St. Charles, MN, where he stayed for 16 years before he was hired at John Marshall High School in Rochester, MN, in 1964.

In 1952, Dick contracted polio and spent six months at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. Due to his diagnosis and the severity of his case, he was sadly never able to walk again but continued to live life and pursue his passions. While this major life-change did put an end to his coaching years he chose to focus even more work onto his other passion and went back to college part-time to earn his Master’s Degree in Guidance Counseling. Dick retired in 1980 after 32 years in the teaching profession and sadly passed away in 2009 at the age of 87.