It is with deep sorrow that we announce the peaceful passing of Allen Burton Caucutt on Sunday, June 29, 2025, at the age of 90 at Shorehaven in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. He departed surrounded by family and love, leaving behind a legacy of creativity, education, and service. Allen is survived by his son John Allen (Mary) Caucutt, his grandson John Patrick (Jamie) Caucutt, and his granddaughter Alexandra M. Caucutt. He met his beloved wife Susan (Koenig) as undergraduates at UWM. Together they shared more than 60 years of marriage before her passing February 24, 2020.
Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin on October 29, 1934, Allen’s passion for art emerged early. He earned a B.S. (1957) and was in the first class to graduate from the newly named University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee f/n/a Milwaukee State Teachers College and Wisconsin State College. He later returned and earned an M.S. (1963) in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Allen taught more than 17,000 students during his career and mentored over 160 student teachers, shaping art education across the Milwaukee Public Schools (South Division High School and Kosciusko High School) and Maple Dale Elementary-where his curriculum earned the prestigious Rockefeller Fund Exemplary Arts Education grant in 1982, the only middle school in the U.S. to receive it at the time. After retiring from Maple Dale Elementary, he went on to guide aspiring teachers as a senior lecturer until his 2012 “retirement” after 57 years of teaching.
Allen maintained friendships with many of his former students throughout his life. Allen’s innovative and award-winning interdisciplinary curriculum combined art education, home arts, and industrial arts. Allen taught his students the “tools of the trade”, opening their imagination and abilities with a healthy dose of intellectual curiosity, laughter and joy. He had the good fortune to be able to provide art education to his grandchildren at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church School in Oconomowoc. To all his former students – Walk slow and smile a lot, but always pay attention, there is going to be a test in 10 minutes.
Beyond teaching, Allen was an acclaimed artist, with his work featured in more than 160 public installations and over 1,600 private collections in the US and abroad. Allen created with welded metal sculpture, bronze casting, and paintings. His gardens showed us what he saw, and his jesters told us how he felt. His remarkable contributions to the arts won awards too numerus to tell, and he was honored with the Outstanding Service to the Arts Award from the UWM Peck School of the Arts. His awards, culminating in the 2020 UWM Ernest Spaights Plaza Award-testify to his belief in art’s power to enrich community and inspire students.
Allen served 6 months active service in the United States Army and 6 years in the US Army reserves, despite his records being burnt in the 1973 Fire at the National Personnel Records Center and being denied WRS creditable military service benefits. This personally alienated him being very proud of his service to this country. Allen was also a self-professed “union troublemaker” serving as President of the North Shore United Educators and various related positions for more than 33 years. Allen fought for the rights of students and teachers so that they could have a healthy and productive life in school and at home, as well as a stable and satisfying retirement. Finally, Allen was noted for being a featured artist on the Channel 10 (PBS) art auctions during the 1970’s and 1980’s and was proud to have served as an auctioneer and artist for their cause.
Allen was fun, funny, smart, inspiring, and loved. He will be missed by so many…but his memory and love endures in all our hearts, his art, and his legacy.
A memorial service celebrating Allen’s life will be held at Shorehaven Chapel 1305 W. Wisconsin Ave., August 16, 2025 visitation 9am until time of service at 11am followed by refreshments in Roehl Auditorium on Shorehaven Campus until 2pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the UWM Foundation Inc., MEMO LINE Cosier-Osborne Scholarship Fund #7671001, in recognition of Allen’s lifelong dedication to nurturing artists and educators.
