Mr. & Mrs. Larry Nutter Scholarship in Chemistry

College of Science and Health alumni who remember Professor Larry Nutter recall him as being humble. Others he met would find that out too. When people asked him what his profession was, he replied, “a teacher.” Those meeting Nutter wouldn’t know he was a pillar in UW-L’s prestigious Chemistry Department. Nutter’s wife, Edie, wants to change that. Edie first worked to recognize him by funding scholarships to chemistry students since he died in 2003. She’s met all those recipients — one even reminded her of Larry.

Now Edie is sustaining her husband’s legacy. She has established the Larry & Edith Nutter Chemistry Scholarship Endowment Fund to give deserving UW-L chemistry students scholarships annually. And, she’s made arrangements for an estate gift.
“He thought there was nothing more beautiful than a mind that succeeds with education,” says Edie. “I thought it was the best way to honor Larry. Teaching was everything to him.”

Nutter moved with his family to La Crosse from Menomonie in 8th grade. He graduated from Central High School in 1949 and UW-L in 1954. After serving in the US Army for two years in Germany, he returned with a German native — Edie, who
became his bride. Following a year teaching in Cashton, he returned to Central, where he had the distinction of preparing three students accepted into West Point. He earned master’s degrees at UW-Madison in 1961 and Marquette University in 1965. He did doctorate studies at the University of North Dakota.

In 1963, UW-L Chemistry Professor Milford Cowley persuaded him to return to his alma mater. Nutter stayed in the department until retiring in 1996. “He never missed a day — not a day,” recalls Edie. “He was a man who was devoted to education.” Nutter “worked for everything he earned,” says Edie. That’s why she wants to help students. “He thought education was a gift,” she explains. In his honor, she has one request of scholarship recipients: “To do a good deed for someone they don’t know.”
It’s a lasting bond the late Chemistry Professor Larry Nutter continues to give.