Mary Jo Buggs, 74, a resident at the Lodge at Whispering Pines Assisted Living Center in Plover and a retired University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) professor, formerly of Stevens Point, died Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013.
A private family burial will be held at a later date.
Memorials in her name should be given to the UWSP Foundation, 134 Old Main, Stevens Point, WI 54481, for the English Department Award.
Shuda Funeral Home of Plover assisted the family with arrangements. Condolences may be offered online at www.shudafuneral.com.
Ms. Buggs was born March 11, 1938, in Wisconsin Rapids, a daughter of the late Jerome and Dorothy (LeRoux) Buggs. She grew up in central Wisconsin and graduated from P.J. Jacobs High School in Stevens Point in 1955. She attended Wisconsin State College-Stevens Point (now UWSP) in the late 1950s, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in secondary education in 1959. There, she was a member of Mu Chi Omega sorority, editor-in-chief of the Pointer in 1958 and named Homecoming Queen in 1959.
She taught at Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids in the mid-1960s.
She earned a master of science degree in teaching (English) in 1966 from Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point (now UWSP), focusing on the reading interests of adolescents, and began to teach there that fall.
She developed an instrument for grading compositions that was used by the department for many years and was subsequently used in the UWSP Writing Across the Curriculum program of the 1970s where it was called the Buggs Scale, a title she said she really didn’t like.
In 1974, she passed her doctorate preliminary exams in English at UW-Milwaukee, and had a dissertation proposal on American Nature Writers accepted in September 1975. She was active in the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English and the Popular Culture Association; and she was an active member and sometime chair of the Coordinating Council of Women in Higher Education, a statewide organization promoting Affirmative Action and measures making it possible for women to advance in higher education. She remained at the university until her retirement in 2000.
Survivors include two nieces, Julie Hedgecorth, Saint Louis, Mo., and Amy (Jeff) Wrobel, La Crosse; and two great-nieces.
She was also preceded in death by one sister, Charlotte (Jack) Krull.
