Mead Public Library Foundation
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Maas family members unveil a plaque honoring the contributions of Dr. and Mrs. Jerome M. Maas to Mead Public LIbrary
Foundation Receives $1 Million Bequest
Family members were the guests of honor when a plaque in memory of Dr. Jerome M. Maas and his wife, Henrietta A. Landwehr, was dedicated at Mead Public Library on Jan. 26, 2008. Dr. and Mrs. Maas are major contributors to the development of Mead Public Library facilities and services through two large gifts to the Mead Public Library Foundation. The Henrietta A. Landwehr Children’s Library Center is named in memory of Mrs. Maas, who worked at the library prior to her marriage and the couple’s subsequent relocation to Indianapolis.
Dr. Maas arranged for a second major gift in his name to be executed as part of his estate. This gift of $1 million is to be invested with its income used to enhance youth services at the library. The Mead Public Library Foundation, at the request of the Mead Public Library Board of Trustees, has earmarked the first $150,000 of income for use in development of the Dr. Jerome M. Maas Teen Learning Center.
The plaque is made of granite and features an informal portrait of the couple with an inscription. It has been installed on a wall on the third floor landing.
A Sheboygan native, Maas, age 94, previously contributed over $700,000 to the Mead Public Library expansion project in 1997. The library’s Henrietta A. Landwehr Children’s Library Center is named in memory of Maas’ wife, who died in 1993 at the age of 79.
The bequest stipulates that the funds be treated as an endowment, so only the investment income may be spent, according to Attorney William H. Holbrook, president of the Foundation. In addition, the income may be spent only to enhance youth services, facilities and collections, but may not be used for operating expenses.
Maas’ nephew, Karl Kaeppler, said Maas had always been interested in education and reading and hoped to pass those traits along to young people. While Maas had not visited Sheboygan since 1971, Kaeppler said he was keenly interested in keeping up with news and events happening in Sheboygan. He especially liked to reminisce about growing up in Sheboygan, Kaeppler added, particularly the Michigan Ave. neighborhood where he lived.
Maas (pictured at right) was a 1928 graduate of Sheboygan High School and studied pre-medicine at Mission House, now Lakeland College. In 1934, he met Henrietta A. Landwehr, a 1931 Sheboygan High grad who was working in the children’s department at the Sheboygan Public Library (now Mead Public Library).
In 1942, Maas, by then a medical student at the University of Wisconsin, married Landwehr in Sheboygan. They moved to Madison and after he graduated, relocated to Chicago, where he completed a residency in obstetrics/gynecology, and became interested in reproductive endocrinology. That led to a position as a research physician at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis in 1947.
Maas’ father, Henry, was well-known in Sheboygan musical circles around the turn of the century. He was director of the Maas Military Band and of the Sheboygan City Line Band, and later was first violinist and concertmaster of the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra.
Like his father, Jerome Maas had a lifelong love of music. While in college, he played the saxophone in a swing group. Although Maas often referred to the pipe organ as his “first musical love,” he was an avid fan of jazz.
In 1960, he was part of a group of six people who owned an FM radio station in Indianpolis and participated in a program involving both classical and jazz music. Later, he was invited to do a series of programs on WFBM radio and, under the assumed name of Jerry Black, presented 330 half-hour and 92 one-hour music programs.
Maas donated the tapes of those programs to Mead Library. With private contributions used for expenses, they were converted to CD format and are played at certain times in Jerry Black’s, the library’s vending café on the third floor, named in Maas’ honor. Kaeppler said that his uncle was very grateful to Mead Library for its interest in preserving the tapes.
Holbrook called Maas “an extremely gifted and very loving man who did not seek recognition for himself, but instead sought recognition for his wife, Henrietta A. Landwehr, in her own right.”
Holbrook noted that while the Maases had no children of their own, their gifts to the library will entertain, inform, and educate thousands of children of the Sheboygan community.
Henrietta A. Landwehr was born and raised in Sheboygan. After graduating from Sheboygan High School in 1931, she began work as a children’s librarian in the Sheboygan Public Library (now Mead Public Library). During the time of her employment, she met and became engaged to marry Jerome M. Maas, also a Sheboygan native. After their marriage in 1942, the couple moved to Madison and later settled in Indianapolis.
Mrs. Maas enjoyed listening to music, reading, collecting crystal and porcelain, and was an active volunteer. Members of the Sheboygan community remember her warm personality, joyful manner, and her fondness for children. She died in Indianapolis in 1993 at the age of 79.
