MILWAUKEE – Mike Lovell had cancer. Everyone knew he had cancer. But news of the Marquette University president’s death was still a gut-punch.
“Devastating,” Dr. Howard Fuller, a retired MU professor emeritus, told WTMJ’s Wis. Morning News on Monday. “I’m in shock.”
Lovell died while traveling in Italy on Sunday following a three year battle with a rare form of cancer. The Marquette University president was just 57-years-old.
“Even though we all knew he had cancer, he was still relentless,” Fuller explained. “(Lovell) was on campus, he was in meetings in the community, etc. You didn’t think about (his cancer) because he was so active.”
“He didn’t just *want* to do things, he was actually doing them.”
Fuller said he had just spoken with Lovell a few weeks ago, when the two received honorary doctorate degrees from the Medical College of Wisconsin. They had discussed Lovell’s upcoming trip to Italy.
Fuller was coming to grips with the loss when he spoke to WTMJ Monday morning.
“He did a lot not just for Marquette University, but for the city of Milwaukee.”
WTMJ’s Political Power Hour host Steve Scaffidi worked closely with Lovell.
“It was a gut-punch,” Scaffidi said. “What an amazing human being. Gone too soon. The guy was a warrior.”
TOP STORIES FROM THE WTMJ NEWSROOM:
- UPDATE: Body of man missing in Thiensville recovered in Milwaukee river
- Deadly crash near the Zoo Interchange Saturday morning
- Businesses, patrons nervous about RNC crowds according to Milwaukee alderman
- Fond du Lac Police investigate suspicious fire at Fond du Lac High School
- Phishing reports double in recent years
