Mary Faye Heinecke Poulson

Mary Faye Heinecke Poulson.

Loving Aunt, loyal friend, dedicated educator, compassionate mentor, beloved coach, pioneering athlete, and community activist. Mary Heinecke epitomized a difference-making life well lived. She was welcomed into heaven August 7, 2024 at the age of 94.

Born April 28, 1930 in Sheboygan, Wis., the daughter of Karl and Irene Heinecke, Mary graduated from Sheboygan Central High School. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Valparaiso University and a master’s degree in education from Miami University of Ohio. She conducted additional studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Colorado State University, the University of Colorado and Northwest Missouri State University.

In May, 1977, Mary married John Poulson, with whom she shared 16 loving years before his death in 1993.

In an era where opportunities for women athletes were limited, Mary excelled. An outstanding fencer, she was a five-time Wisconsin state open champion and six-time closed state champion. She was ranked as high as13th nationally and competed in six national championship tournaments. She also was a10-time state badminton champion and won the Midwest senior title three times. She was nationally ranked from 1972-76 and competed in a pair of national badminton championships. As a teenage tennis player, she was ranked fourth in the state.

Over the years, Mary started and directed numerous clinics and workshops for all three sports for high school coaches and teachers throughout the Midwest and served two years as chair of the NCAA’s Midwest Tennis Advisory Committee.

She began her professional career in 1952 at Milwaukee Lutheran High School, teaching English and physical education. After serving five years as a district director with the Milwaukee Area Girl Scout Council, Mary joined the faculty of the all-women’s Milwaukee-Downer College in 1963. A year later, Milwaukee-Downer consolidated with Lawrence College and she was one of 21M-D faculty members who relocated to Appleton to join the faculty at Lawrence.

During a 29-year career at Lawrence marked by dignity, determination, grace, good humor, gentle counsel and sensitivity, Mary coached four sports: women’s tennis, Lawrence’s first varsity sport for women; men’s tennis; women’s basketball; and men’s and women’s fencing, which competed primarily against NCAA Division I opponents. Her women's tennis teams won seven conference championships, including five in a row from 1975-79 and she was the relentless catalyst behind the elevation of men’s and women’s fencing from club sport to varsity sport status in 1985. She served as the fencing coach from her arrival at Lawrence until her retirement in 1993 as the last Milwaukee-Downer faculty member still teaching at Lawrence.

Mary was elected a charter member — and the first woman — to the Lawrence University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996. She was recognized by the United States Fencing Coaches Association with its Coach of the Year honor and was inducted into the Fox Valley Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.

Mary’s impact and influence extended well beyond the classroom and playing court. In 1980, she co-founded the Noonhour Philosophers, a seven-month-a-year weekly community speaker series featuring area experts and scholars designed to stimulate thought and spirited discussion. For more than 40 years, she organized the schedule and arranged for the speakers.

She spent more than three decades volunteering with the local Meals on Wheels program and was active for many years as a volunteer with LEAVEN, the Fox Valley Girl Scout Council and the Appleton Ecumenical Network. Starting in 2000, Mary served as coordinator for the annual Fox Cities Crop Walk.

Her efforts were publicly honored in 2016 at the annual “Celebrating Our Volunteers” gala when she was named the recipient of the Paul and Elaine Groth Mentoring Award, which recognizes a mentor in the community, who over time has, by example, made meaningful contributions to the quality of life in the Fox Cities. 

A role model for lifelong learning, Mary was an avid reader, an art lover and an accomplished, if not superb, bridge player. Her sense of adventure and curiosity lead to travels throughout the world, including much of Europe and South America.

She is survived by 4 nieces, Linda (Dave) Schoening of Silver City, Iowa, Kendra (Dave) Ford of Cascade, Wisconsin, Nancy (Bob) Schmidtman of Sheboygan, Debbie Reineke of Plymouth and niece-in-law Nancy Heinecke of Sheboygan Falls, as well as numerous great nieces and nephews, two step-granddaughters, Summer (Doug) and Sam (Mike), two step great grandchildren Copeland and Elizabeth and a dear friend Greta Rogers.

In addition to her parents, and husband, Mary was preceded in death by her sibling, brother Karl, her stepdaughter Donna Rasmussen, niece, Barbara Heinecke, and nephews Paul, John, and Peter Heinecke.

There will be a memorial service for Mary on August 15, 2024 at First English Lutheran Church, 326 E. North Street in Appleton at 11:30 AM. Visitation will be from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the church. Interment will be at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Sheboygan at a later date.

The family extends a thank you to the staff at Touchmark for their exceptional care given to Aunt Mary.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to the John and Mary Poulson Fund at Lawrence University, the Healing Hearts Fund at Theda Care Regional Medical Center (Theda Clark), Valparaiso University or the organization of your choice.