In the 53 years since she graduated from Northwestern, Patricia Buehler has traveled to the Himalayas, Antarctica, the Arctic Circle and South Africa, among other places, and just returned from Florida Tuesday.
But the Illinois native will soon join the likes of Judd A. Weinberg and Charlton Heston for the five decades of work she has done close to home. Buehler will receive the highest honor from the Northwestern Alumni Association, the Alumni Medal, on Apr. 1.
“I saw the date and thought, ‘Who’s teasing who?'” Buehler said. “I’m very excited. I was never expecting it.”
The medal is intended to honor alumni who excel in either professional or volunteer work as well as serve the university, according to Cathy Stembridge, the executive director of the alumni association. Besides Weinberg and Heston, past winners have included Arthur Pancoe, Edwin Oscar Blomquist and Saul Bellow.
A committee of NU officials and the alumni association make the pick each year.
“It has to be somebody who represents the best of Northwestern in the very broadest sense,” Stembridge said.
Buehler graduated from the School of Communication in 1953. She and her late husband, Albert C. Buehler Jr., established the Buehler Family Foundation, which has supported the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Ill., and given grants to the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Lincoln Park Zoo.
At NU they endowed two professorships at Kellogg School of Management and supported the alumni association, the Buehler Sports Medicine Center at Ryan Field and the Feinberg School of Medicine’s Buehler Center on Aging.
Buehler serves on the advisory group for the center on aging, which organizes research, education and community outreach for the elderly. Buehler is particularly good at coming up with ideas and encouragement, Director Linda Emanuel said.
“Her loyal support for the Buehler Center has made it possible to do everything that we do,” Emanuel said.
Several friends and colleagues of Buehler said that she is adept at problem-solving.
“She’s very smart. She’s not afraid to share her ideas or work for them,” said Roxy Pepper. Pepper met Buehler when both were students at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill. They both served on the student council and later attended NU together. Some 60 years later, they still work together on various university projects.
One part of Buehler’s charm is her smile and laugh, Pepper said. “She has a great giggle.”
Buehler was the co-chairwoman for the 50th reunion of the class of 1953 and was relentless in getting alumni to donate money and attend the event, Stembridge said.
“She won’t take no for an answer,” she said. “She gets you to do what she wants you to do, and you’re happy to do it. It’s a gift.”
Buehler said she feels grateful toward the university for all of the opportunities it has given to her. She still serves on the School of Communication’s advisory council and the NU board of trustees.
“The university has been wonderful to me,” she said.
She still keeps in touch with many of the people she met, including friends from Pi Beta Phi, her sorority. Buehler also was part of the Ski Club.
Buehler’s husband, Albert, died of respiratory failure in August 2004, but Buehler handled it well and returned quickly to her life, Emanuel said.
“She displayed incredible courage and strength,” Emanuel said. “The way she cared for her husband as he was facing the inevitability of the end of his life.”
Buehler’s trip to Florida was her first trip since her husband died. She leaves for Bangkok, Thailand today.
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