F. William “Bill” Haberman became president of the Herzfeld Foundation in 1997, the year Ethel Herzfeld passed; Richard preceded her in death by 17 years. Bill then served in that role for 22 years. He had previously been a member of the foundation’s board and had been the Herzfelds’ attorney for many years, becoming like a son to them. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Harvard Law School, he was one of Milwaukee’s most prominent estate planning attorneys during a lengthy career as a partner at the law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich.
Bill’s wife, Carmen, joined his side at the Herzfeld Foundation in 2002 in the position of vice president. Also a graduate of UW-Madison, she co-founded the Milwaukee Metropolitan Nursery School in 1967 – the city’s first multi-ethnic, multi-economic preschool program. In 1981, she became an integral member of the development and membership team at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she worked until joining the foundation’s staff.
Together, Bill and Carmen Haberman grew the foundation’s assets while investing tens of millions of dollars into Milwaukee’s arts and cultural landscape. In keeping with Carmen’s background in early learning and Bill’s passion for investing in the lives of young people, they also made the foundation one of Wisconsin’s foremost champions for high-quality early childhood education, investing millions more in research, advocacy, and innovation in a sector that previously had received little attention from philanthropy.
Bill passed away in 2019 and Carmen in 2025. Today, the Herzfeld Foundation continues their legacy with our continued investments in areas that mattered most to both the Herzfelds and the Habermans and our continued efforts to seek and support nonprofit innovation, collaboration, and excellence.
