Memorial Scholarship Started for Former Sturgeon Bay Teacher

Gretchen Schmelzer with Emily Tess, the recipient of the first Steve Schmelzer Memorial Scholarship.

Gretchen Schmelzer awarded the first annual Steve Schmelzer Memorial Scholarship to Emily Tess during the 2019 Sturgeon Bay School District’s senior award ceremony May 26. It was given in memory of Gretchen’s late husband, Steve Schmelzer, and the positive impact he had during his 25-year social studies and coaching career in the school district.

Steve Schmelzer’s passion for social studies, current events, philosophy and broadening the minds and dreams of his students enhanced many lives. He was a catalyst in nurturing his students’ forward thinking and challenged them daily to look at all sides of an issue and support their ideas.

Tess will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to study biological engineering.The annual Steve Schmelzer Memorial Scholarship is available to students graduating from Sturgeon Bay High School who have exhibited good character and sportsmanship and shown an interest in world happenings, and who are open and curious about diverse ways of thinking.