JAMES T AND SHIRLEY A CHIZEK MEMORAL SCHOLARSHIP
Through the generosity of Michelle Chizek 2025 is the inaugural year of the Jame T and Shirley A Chizek Memorial Scholarship
Jim was born in 1930 and raised on a dairy farm near Fifield, Wisconsin. He served overseas in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War. Then in 1955, he married Shirley Plyer and began his conservation career. Jim was hired as a Special Conservation Warden in Ladysmith for the Wisconsin Conservation Department. He then returned to his hometown of Fifield and worked out of Park Falls where he surveyed deer wintering yards and drew deer-timber browse maps. He then proceeded to Shawano to work the spring sturgeon run on the Wolf River which was considered a professional right-of-passage for wardens of that era. Jim was then assigned a training position in Jefferson and then began his first permant position at Portage.
In 1966, Jim accepted a promotion as District Supervisory Warden at Park Falls which brought the family back together in northern Wisconsin. Two years on, Jim was seriously injured in an life changing auto accident while working deer-shiners on the Price-Lincoln County line. After two long years of physical rehabilitation, he accepted a job in the Bureau of Law Enforcement in Madison. He spent the next 16 years performing law enforcement budget and planning along with undercover enforcement.
His Wife, Shirley, volunteered countless hours supporting the Game Warden and comprehensively knew the game regulations. She assisted Jim in his duties, day and night, by answering regulatory inquiries while he was in the field working. Later, Jim retired after 30 years of law enforcement duty. He was a founding member and served as the first President of the Wisconsin Conservation Wardens Association and was on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Conservation and Education Foundation.
The $2,500 annual scholarship is open to anyone attending a 2 or 4 year college with an educational focus on conservation, natural resources or law enforcement.
Through the generosity of Michelle Chizek 2025 is the inaugural year of the Jame T and Shirley A Chizek Memorial Scholarship
Jim was born in 1930 and raised on a dairy farm near Fifield, Wisconsin. He served overseas in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War. Then in 1955, he married Shirley Plyer and began his conservation career. Jim was hired as a Special Conservation Warden in Ladysmith for the Wisconsin Conservation Department. He then returned to his hometown of Fifield and worked out of Park Falls where he surveyed deer wintering yards and drew deer-timber browse maps. He then proceeded to Shawano to work the spring sturgeon run on the Wolf River which was considered a professional right-of-passage for wardens of that era. Jim was then assigned a training position in Jefferson and then began his first permant position at Portage.
In 1966, Jim accepted a promotion as District Supervisory Warden at Park Falls which brought the family back together in northern Wisconsin. Two years on, Jim was seriously injured in an life changing auto accident while working deer-shiners on the Price-Lincoln County line. After two long years of physical rehabilitation, he accepted a job in the Bureau of Law Enforcement in Madison. He spent the next 16 years performing law enforcement budget and planning along with undercover enforcement.
His Wife, Shirley, volunteered countless hours supporting the Game Warden and comprehensively knew the game regulations. She assisted Jim in his duties, day and night, by answering regulatory inquiries while he was in the field working. Later, Jim retired after 30 years of law enforcement duty. He was a founding member and served as the first President of the Wisconsin Conservation Wardens Association and was on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Conservation and Education Foundation.
The $2,500 annual scholarship is open to anyone attending a 2 or 4 year college with an educational focus on conservation, natural resources or law enforcement.
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