Retired Vice Chair, W.W. Grainger, Inc.
UW Major: Accounting
On a frigid January night during his senior year at UW–Madison, Jere Fluno, CPA, stepped out of the Commerce Building after an accounting exam. Sixty-two years later, he remembers the crunch of snow on Bascom Hill and the Capitol dome glowing in the distance — realizing that as a Badger, he was part of something bigger.
The Wisconsin Rapids native was the youngest of six children and the first in his family to attend college. Fluno’s mother gave up teaching when she married but nurtured her own children’s curiosity. His father left school in eighth grade to help run the family farm after losing his parents. Still, Fluno calls him a “very smart and compassionate man” — a history buff and obsessive reader. Together, his parents passed down a love of learning and a strong work ethic.
Fluno began college at what’s now UW–Stevens Point, then transferred to UW–Madison as a junior to study accounting. That move took his parents’ help, hard work — one summer, he managed a restaurant by day and worked nights at a paper mill — and, most crucially, scholarships.
“Scholarships changed my life,” he says. “Without them, I couldn’t have gone to college.”
In Madison, Fluno embraced his new community. Having pledged Sigma Phi Epsilon at UW–Stevens Point, he joined the Madison chapter and formed lifelong friendships. He also racked up long-distance charges on the house phone staying in touch with his college sweetheart, Anne, who was back in Stevens Point. Jere and Anne were married more than 60 years before she passed in 2024.
The Flunos were big Badger football fans. Just before Jere graduated from the School of Commerce (today’s Wisconsin School of Business) in 1963, the team went to the Rose Bowl. Jere and Anne couldn’t afford the trip but vowed they’d go the next time. They ended up waiting 30 years, finally traveling to Pasadena in 1994, this time with most of their children and their spouses.
With his degree, Fluno began his career at Alexander Grant & Co. (today, Grant Thornton), where he helped take W.W. Grainger, Inc., public. He joined Grainger full-time in 1969 and, over the next three decades, played a key role in shaping the company’s long-term growth and operations before retiring as vice chair in 2001. He served on corporate and nonprofit boards in Chicago, including the Museum of Science and Industry, where he still serves as a life trustee. He’s also been recognized for his advocacy and fundraising on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (the organization now named Breakthrough T1D).
His professional success allowed him to give back to his alma mater through funding, advocacy, and relationship-building. One of the longest-serving members of the UW Foundation Board and a past chair, Fluno has worked on every major fundraising campaign since the 1970s. Jere and Anne supported a wide range of programs — from scholarships and cancer research to athletics and the UW Marching Band, plus the College of Engineering and the schools of Business, Medicine and Public Health, and Veterinary Medicine. They’ve also supported the Department of Astronomy for many years; Jere currently serves on its Board of Visitors and is a past chair. He also previously served on the Wisconsin School of Business board. WSB honored him as a Distinguished Business Alumnus in 1992, and he played a pivotal role in helping the university acquire land for Grainger Hall — a significant expansion for the business school.
Perhaps his most widely recognized contribution is the Fluno Center for Executive Education. Designed for working professionals, it reflects Fluno’s belief that earning a degree shouldn’t end someone’s relationship with the UW — it should begin one. He provided the lead gift and worked closely with WSB leaders to shape the center’s mission around lifelong learning and alumni engagement. Since 2000, it has welcomed thousands of professionals each year to sharpen their skills and strengthen their UW connections.
Fluno believes people take the UW for granted. “UW–Madison isn’t just a university,” he says. “It’s a research institution that also educates more than 52,000 students each year.” He points to life-changing breakthroughs — from stem cell science to bone marrow transplants — and looks forward to projects like UW Health’s new Eastpark Medical Center, which will transform outpatient care with cutting-edge cancer treatment and precision therapies. The center also honors his late wife; the indoor Anne Fluno Café and the outdoor seating area are named in her memory.
It was the life-changing impact of scholarship aid that inspired the philanthropy Fluno holds closest to his heart. In 1981, Jere and Anne established their first scholarship in honor of Jere’s father. “I wasn’t the easiest kid to raise, with all the pranks I pulled, but I think they [his parents] would be proud of me,” he says.
They’ve since awarded nearly 700 scholarships. Inspired by Jere’s own experience of not knowing much about the woman who funded his scholarship — despite how much that support meant to him — Jere and Anne introduced the Fluno Scholars Dinner to connect recipients with the people behind the awards. At the annual event, students share a meal and Jere shares his contact information, inviting them to stay in touch.
On the back of the dinner program are words Jere wrote years ago and still lives by: “Love and live life to its fullest, be true to yourself, utilize your God-given talents, remember where you came from, and don’t forget to give back.”