Marilee Stepan

Swimming for the Lake Shore Club of Chicago, Marilee Stepan took third place at the 1952 Final Trials in the 100m freestyle and then placed seventh in the Olympic final. She later won a bronze medal in the relay. She won the 1952 AAU indoor 220 yard freestyle.

Stepan was a native Chicagoan who attended Barat College of the Sacred Heart and later married Richard Wehman, with whom she had four children. She served on the US Olympic Committee board for several years, and was on the Chicago Arts and Culture Advisory Council and for over 50 years served as a member of the Lyric Opera Women’s Board of Chicago. Stepan was a Life Trustee of Lyric Ryan Opera Center for more than 35 years, and was a Trustee of the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park. She was also an executive producer at WTTW, a local PBS affiliate.

Stepan served on the Women’s Board at Northwestern University and endowed the Marilee Prize, a scholarship for underprivileged female athletes, at the University of Chicago. She was a Founding Trustee of the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Pilsen-Little Village Chicago.

Her father was Alfred Stepan, who founded the Stepan Company, a specialty chemical company in Northfield, Illinois. In 1962, he and his wife, Mary Stepan, donated the Stepan Center, a student activities facility at the University of Notre Dame. He was also a founding member of the Lyric Opera Board of Directors of Chicago on which Marilee served for so long.