Overlook honors Peter Cofrin’s memory

GREEN BAY — A hillside platform with views of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and its campus arboretum has been officially designated the “Peter Cofrin Memorial Overlook.”

The announcement came Saturday (Oct. 4) at a public gathering of family and friends to celebrate the life of Peter A. Cofrin, who passed away July 10 at age 63.

Interim Chancellor David J. Ward unveiled a facsimile of the plaque to be installed at the site and described the honor as “a fitting tribute to an important founder of the Cofrin Memorial Arboretum.”

The wooden platform has for decades provided a resting and viewing spot along a main trail just uphill from Upahki Pond and south of the soccer field and Bay Settlement entrance drive.

The plaque will read:
Peter Cofrin Memorial Overlook
Dedicated to the generosity and vision of Peter A. Cofrin (1945-2008), who with other members of the Cofrin Family helped create the Cofrin Memorial Arboretum and an enduring legacy of opportunities for students, campus and community.

In the mid-1970s, Peter, a Green Bay native, took a leadership role in establishing the natural area. He joined with his brothers and sisters to create an endowment for plantings, trail development and the purchase of additional property for an arboretum encircling campus with restored prairie, woodlands and Green Bay shoreline.

Their $575,000 gift — at the time, the largest donation to a UW school outside of Madison — was a memorial to their father, who was president of Fort Howard Paper Co., and grandfather Austin Cofrin, the company founder.

At least 75 people attended the Oct. 4 on-campus gathering to remember Peter Cofrin. Family members posed with the plaque following the unveiling.

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