A professor of speech and communications, Dreyfus is best known for resigning from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (and resigning as chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point) to run for the governor’s seat. He won.
A Republican, Dreyfus was famous for jabbing at liberals in the state capital: “Madison is 30 square miles surrounded by reality,” he once said. But he knew politics wasn’t black and white, and surprised his party by being the first governor to sign a gay rights law. The 1982 measure made discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal. He explained that the law fit well into his understanding of his party: “It is a fundamental tenet of the Republican Party that government ought not intrude in the private lives of individuals where no state purpose is served, and there is nothing more private or intimate than who you live with and who you love.”
Dreyfus chose not to run for reelection, preferring to go back into private life. He died at home on January 2 after suffering heart and lung problems. He was 81.