She spent years in hiding, forging papers and fleeing imprisonment in Nazi Germany. Expelled from high school for her Jewish heritage, she fled Germany and ultimately landed in Madison. Now after her death, Vera Croner is giving almost $500,000 to UW-Madison.
Croner was born in 1920 in Germany. Before the Nazi era, Croner described her childhood as one of a ""pampered, only child,"" according to her friend and exector of estate Bob Davis.
However, under Nazi rule, she was prohibited from attending German schools and her parents had her tutored privately. She was unable to attend German universities, so she studied under a Jewish attorney.
She moved to Norway as a refugee, then to Copenhagen. Most of her relatives were killed during the war and she was temporarily separated from her father, who was interned in Shanghai, but she was reunited with her parents in Madison in 1951.
Soon after her arrival in America, possibly on the boat, Croner wrote a memoir titled ""The Odyssey of the German Jew."" She typed the memoir on both sides on the paper, because paper was scarce.
At the age of 38, Croner enrolled at UW-Madison and graduated in 1958 with a degree in accounting.
After graduation, she soon became administrator and counselor of the office at the Credit Union National Association.
Croner spoke four languages fluently, but when she experienced a stroke during her 40's, she was never expected to speak again.
With much dedication, Croner regained her speech.
""The notable feature of Vera's life was sheer tenacity,"" Davis said. ""She was not to be defeated and would not let a cruel fate destroy her.""
Remembered by friends as a talented piano player, good entertainer and traveler, Vera died on January 18, 2010.
She dedicated $641,400—75 percent of her estate—to the UW Foundation for use for scholarships for the Business School, Scandinavian Studies and the Music School.
