Mark E. Fiebrink ’73
Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement
New Berlin native Mark Fiebrink never really appreciated the many ways that mentors reached out to him when he was on campus, majoring in math and physics, he admits. But with more than 40 years’ hindsight, he now sees how extraordinary those connections were.
There was the calculus teacher who asked him what he was involved in outside of class, only to show up at the junior varsity tennis team’s match at University of Wisconsin-Parkside the following weekend to root for him. And the optics professor who opened up his lab to Fiebrink, so he could come in and try things out. Or the chairman of the math department, who always had an open door and a willingness to listen.
Fiebrink, a first-generation college graduate whose father was a cabinetmaker, first saw UW- Whitewater when his parents took him on a trip around the state to visit the various campuses. He chose to be a Warhawk partly because he liked what he saw, and partly because his best friends from high school were planning to attend.
On campus, he thrived. Small class sizes and close faculty interactions helped prepare him to become a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, a professional designation he received after passing the required actuarial examinations within four years of graduation. His 35-year career in the property and casualty insurance industry was capped as president of Wausau Insurance Companies, Liberty Insurance Group.
Fiebrink is a former member of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Foundation Board and continues to serve on the board of directors for Jewelers Mutual Insurance.
Since retiring, Fiebrink serves as a math and physics tutor and mentor to high school students in Naples, Florida, where he lives with his wife, Dianne. They have two daughters: Rebecca, who is a computer science faculty member at Goldsmith’s College, part of the University of London, and Stephanie, who is an commercial insurance underwriting consultant with Liberty Mutual in Dallas. Mark and Dianne also have one granddaughter, Madeline Claire, in Dallas.
