A UW-Madison graduate was killed Sunday during the bombings in Sri Lanka.
Dieter Kowalski, 40, was a Milwaukee native who graduated from UW-Madison in 2001. He was on a business trip, staying at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo Sri Lanka, when the attacks occurred.
The attacks, facilitated by radical Muslim group National Thowfeek Jamaath, targeted churches and luxury hotels in multiple cities across Sri Lanka including Colombo and Negombo. The attacks killed 290 people and injured 500 more.
Kowalski’s brother confirmed his death in a Facebook comment saying, “We have all lost a brother today... RIP Dieter."
The Wisconsin Alumni Association expressed their condolences with Kowalski’s family in a statement to university community members, Monday.
“Dieter was a Badger, living the Wisconsin Idea,” Tod Pritchard, the Wisconsin Foundation & Alumni Association’s director of media and public relations, said. “He took the knowledge gained at UW-Madison and tried to change the world for the better.”
