2025 Festmaster & Frau – Brent & Ellen Smith

Article by Brad Quarberg, 2016 Maple Leaf Parade Marshal

For decades, Brent Smith has worked to help grow and expand the La Crosse Center. As the current president of its board of directors, Smith has made it the region’s go-to event center.

And as part of this year’s Oktoberfest, Smith got to go to the center to be named the 2025 Festmaster.

The longtime La Crosse attorney and his wife, Ellen, were introduced as the 2025 Oktoberfest Festmaster and Frau at the Festmaster’s Ball Wednesday evening, Sept. 24, at the La Crosse Center.

Smith found out he would wear the festival’s golden sash on March 23 when his mentors, 2018 Festmaster Mike Keil and 2023 Festmaser Jeff Wrobel and their fraus, came to his house and left an Oktoberfest trachten jacket, a 12-pack of German beer, and a note on the jacket, “Brent, does this fit?” on the front step.

“I was stunned, excited and a bit in disbelief,” recalls Smith. “It has taken a while for it to sink in.”

Smith has been an attorney since moving to La Crosse in 1978. The Madison native is a member of Johns, Flaherty & Collins’ litigation and business and employment practice groups. He is one of the less than 100 active members of the American Board of Trial Advocates and is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Smith was first appointed to the La Crosse Center Board of Directors by former Mayor Pat Zielke in 1990 and has served as its chair since 1993. While the center started out largely as a vessel for its arena when it opened in 1980, through expansions in 2000 and 2020 it now hosts a larger number and wider variety of events.

“I have enjoyed my years on the board of La Crosse Center due to its wide-ranging impact on our entire region,” notes Smith. “I cannot think of this region and the success we have had without the many events that are held at the La Crosse Center.”

Along with a successful career, Smith has been instrumental in revitalizing higher education in the region and statewide. He served on the Wisconsin Technical College System Board from 2003-12 and the UW System Board of Regents from 2004-13. Smith was president of both boards during his tenures — the first person to have held both titles.

“My efforts with our higher education system have made me realize how lucky we are to have these institutions located right here in our backyard,” he says.

As a community leader, Smith is known as a calm, cool and collected leader who focuses on solutions and bringing people together.

Among his long list of community service is Smith’s philanthropy work for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. That began after his daughter, Erin, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 12. Smith and a committee impacted by Type 1 helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for research through a unique banquet prior to the pandemic and realignment of JDRF.

Smith is looking forward to joining his Royal Family and meeting people at the many upcoming parades, festivals and activities throughout the year.

“We have already made some lifelong friends since this selection occurred, and we know there will be many other opportunities in the year ahead for this,” he says.

Festgoers getting his button will see the La Crosse Center and the Scales of Justice in the traditional festmaster handout.

Meet the 2025 Oktoberfest Festmaster Brent Smith

• Native of Madison, 1971 Madison West High School graduate
• Attorney with Johns, Flaherty & Collins; Jurists Degree, University of Wisconsin Law School, 1978; Bachelor of Arts, UW-Madison, 1975
• Married to Ellen Smith
• Immediate family includes Jen Robson (Bob), Samantha Alexander (Stephan), Erin Smith (Austin), Josh Alexander (Mareah), and Anna Smith (James)
• Among his community service: La Crosse Center Board of Directors; Gundersen Lutheran Health Plan Board of Directors; UW-La Crosse Foundation Board of Directors; UWL Chancellor’s Community Council; La Crosse Promise Board of Directors; La Crosse Community Foundation Board of Directors; La Crosse Loggers Executive Board; Great Rivers United Way Board of Directors; Family & Children’s Center Board of Directors; Seven Rivers Alliance Board of Directors; JDRF Western Wisconsin Chapter Board of Directors
• Affiliations and honors: American Board of Trial Advocates; American College of Trial Lawyers; Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents, former president; Wisconsin Technical College System Board, former president; Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters Board of Directors; State Public Defender Board; Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission for Federal Judges; La Crosse Tribune Person of the Year, 2021
• Quotable: “I was stunned, excited and a bit in disbelief,” Brent Smith recalling when he found out he was the 2025 Oktoberfest Festmaster

Former Festmasters and Fraus