Irwin Probstein

Irwin Probstein was born on December 14, 1925, to Maurice Probstein and Lillian Linefsky Probstein, immigrant Polish and Russian Jews. Irwin grew up in the Albany Park community of Northwest Chicago.

He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School, where he was a member of the Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) and its Competition Platoon. After graduation he was drafted, entering the US Army in March 1944. He completed basic training at Ft. Wolters, Texas, and was assigned to the US Army's 100th or "Century" Infantry Division. http://www.100thww2.org/100wund.html

Private Probstein shipped out on the US Army Transport George Washington and arrived at Marseilles in the south of France in October 1944. On November 15 he was seriously wounded in heavy fighting in the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France near the German border. He spent many months recuperating from his wounds. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. In 1997 he was interviewed by the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum Research Center.
http://www.wisvetsmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Probstein-Irwin_OH233.pdf

His father's family was from Przemsyl, now in eastern Poland. Many of his father's relatives perished in the Holocaust. Irwin told friends about two aunts, who were passengers on the ill-fated voyage of the
MS St. Louis. In 1939 the ship carried Jewish refugees seeking asylum, first in Cuba and then in the US. The ship was turned away and returned to Europe. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27373131

After being discharged from the army, he entered the University of Illinois, Champaign, majoring in psychology. In 1952 he was hired as a probation officer for the Cook County Juvenile Court. In 1956 he earned a masters degree in social work from Loyola University, Chicago. He worked for three years for Cook County Veterans Affairs, before moving to Madison Wisconsin in 1959, where he was employed by the State of Wisconsin at Central Wisconsin Colony and Training School (Central Wisconsin Center for the Developmentally Disabled).
http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/Central_Wisconsin_Center_for_the_Developmentally_Disabled
http://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels2/pdf/80s/83/83-COM-WCD.pdf

He then worked in Madison for the Department of Public Instruction, Bureau for Physical Needs and the Bureau for Handicapped Children until his retirement in 1986. Active in the Madison History Round Table, he was a history buff and an avid reader. https://www.madisonhistoryroundtable.com

His hero was George C. Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff during the Second World War. and later U.S. Secretary of State. He credited Marshall with saving his life, because Marshall ensured life-saving treatment was quickly available to wounded soldiers on the battlefield.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-C-Marshall

In 1958 he married Elaine Stein from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Together they built a home in the Highlands. Irwin was very proud of their home, which was designed by Herb Fritz, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_Tt29K4jg

Elaine passed away in 2002. In 2004 he married Joyce Becker, an Indiana native, who had been a cancer researcher at McArdle Laboratory, UW-Madison. https://mcardle.wisc.edu They continued to live together in their Highlands home until this summer. Irwin passed away on October 18, 2018, at Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. https://www.agrace.org/

Irwin is preceded in death by his parents Maurice and Lillian and his sister, Ida Probstein Leavitt. He is survived by his wife, Joyce, his dear friends Gary and Nancy Holloway and Elliot and Nancy Weiman; his nieces and nephews: Barbara Jarvis, wife of the late Lindle Jarvis; Larry Klein; Tim Klein and his partner Nicole VanderDoes; Janet and her husband Martin Mickey; Carol See and her husband David; and several great-nieces and great-nephews.


There will be a Memorial Service at 11am on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at Attic Angel Place in the Garden Room, 8301 Old Sauk Rd, Middleton. A visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Agrace Hospice or Wisconsin Public Television.