SUSSEX - Quad/Graphics, Inc. has announced that company co-founder and long-time board member Betty Ewens Quadracci died peacefully on Monday at her Chenequa home, surrounded by family and close friends. She was 75 years old.

“As you can imagine, today is a very difficult and sad day for us, but also one of celebration as we commemorate my mother’s very accomplished life,”said her son Joel Quadracci, Chairman, President & CEO of Quad/Graphics, in a statement from the company. “She passed away peacefully and we take comfort in knowing that she is now in heaven with my father Harry.”

Betty Quadracci co-founded the company in 1971 with her late husband, Harry V. Quadracci. The company started operations in a vacant factory in Pewaukee with a single printing press and just 11 employees. Today Sussex-based Quad/Graphics is a global printer and multichannel media integrator with 25,000 employees worldwide at 65-plus printing plants and dozens of support facilities.

In 1985, Betty Quadracci founded Quad/Creative, a graphic design firm now known as Quad/Graphics Creative Solutions. In 2002 she became a member of Quad/Graphics’ Board of Directors. She also served as president of the Windhover Foundation, a philanthropic organization funded by the Quadracci family.

She became publisher of Milwaukee Magazine in 1983 and later was named president of the monthly publication. In 2012 she was inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club’s Media Hall of Fame.

Quadracci served on the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Board of Trustees for many years. In 1997 she and her husband spearheaded a $10 million matching donation from Quad/Graphics to kick off fundraising for a major addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum - the Quadracci Pavilion.

Quadracci received a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., in 1961 and attended the University of Fribourg in Fribourg, Switzerland. She was one of the first trained Montessori teachers in the United States and helped establish the Waukesha Montessori School in 1964. She also helped launch the Waukesha Head Start program in 1968, the oldest continually operating Head Start program in the United States.

She is survived by her four children - Richard, Kathryn, Joel and Elizabeth - 10 grandchildren and five siblings.