Estella Lauter

Estella Loomis Lauter is professor emeritus and former chair of the UW Oshkosh English Department. She was instrumental in revamping the English department curriculum and in leading the development of a master’s degree in English. Estella received the Rosebush Professorship in 2000. Before joining the English department as chair in 1994, her 25-year career in teaching and research had been established at the Hartford College of Women, the University of Rochester in New York, Lawrence University and UW-Green Bay. She received bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Rochester. Estella published three books and many articles spanning literature, visual art, aesthetics, psychology, and religion. She served as Poet Laureate of Door County (2013-2015) and is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and the Academy of American Poets. Her poems have won awards from the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, the Wisconsin Writers Association, Fox Cry Review, The Peninsula Pulse, and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Estella established the Edna and Judson Loomis Prize in Music in 2002, in honor of her parents.

Edna Lawrence Loomis, from Lima, NY, sang and played the organ. Judson Clark Loomis, from Champion, NY, was an organist, pianist and teacher of music theory. They met at Genessee Wesleyan Seminary in the 1930s. Judson continued his studies in music at Ithaca College and in composition at Syracuse University in upstate New York. He also studied privately with Franklin Canon at Carnegie Hall. He was an Associate Professor of Music when he retired from Towson State University in Maryland. He held many positions as church organist and choir director, most recently at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Ripon, WI. Both loved liturgical and classical music and believed that life without music would not be worth living.