Edward Quillin Endowed Scholarship

The supermarket business today is not what it was when Ed Quillin began his first IGA store in 1945. “It is a fast-changing, highly technical industry now,” Quillin said. “It presents many challenges and still interests me.” Quillin, whose sons now operate the six-store chain that dominates the La Crosse market, has retired from the business. He continues to own and operate Center Q, a shopping center on La Crosse’s south side. He became interested in funding scholarships for WWTC students after his son, Phillip, president of Quillin IGA stores, taught a class in Supermarket Management at the College. “Some of the people he taught became our employees,” Ed Quillin said. Quillin has endowed the Edward J. Quillin Scholarship Fund through the Foundation to award grants to students in WWTC’s Food Marketing Program who intend to go into Supermarket Management. “This is my way of giving something back to the food industry,” Quillin said. “It’s been good to me.”