Alum Jacob Blazkovec’s unexpected career path led him to two professions — but one guiding purpose: improving lives through care and advocacy

By Katie Ginder-Vogel

Jacob Blazkovec (BS ‘82) has one career goal but two professions — neither of which was “the plan.”

His north star is working directly with people to improve their lives, and he follows that guiding light as a lawyer and registered pharmacist.

“Both career paths have a common goal, and that is to help people,” Blazkovec says. “Whether it be administering a vaccine to a child, consulting about an over-the-counter medication, advising a juvenile or senior citizen — in court or not — we are all connected, which requires people skills, and I have been blessed with that gift.”

He’s a second-generation lawyer who owns a practice in Algoma, Wisconsin, where he grew up, and is also a registered pharmacist and owner of Bay Hometown Pharmacy just 20 minutes away, in Sturgeon Bay.

“Whether it be administering a vaccine to a child, consulting about an over-the-counter medication, advising a juvenile or senior citizen — in court or not — we are all connected.”
—Jacob Blazkovec

But he never intended to become either one. Having long enjoyed science, he wanted to be a pediatrician or a science teacher. But as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, his roommates in Witte Hall encouraged him to try pharmacy.

“I cannot say enough about the colleagues who encouraged me to give pharmacy a shot,” he says. “I’m forever grateful for the professors I had and the classmates I met.”

An early career in pharmacy

Blazkovec traces his interest in chemistry back to spending time with his uncle, Andy Blazkovec, former UW–Madison professor of microbiology. In high school, he would ride the Greyhound bus from Green Bay to Madison to visit his uncle.

“He’d pick me up, and we’d take care of the guinea pigs, at the old Saint Mary’s Hospital on Charter Street, across from the old pharmacy school,” Blazkovec recalls. “Because of my time with him, if I hadn’t been a pharmacist, I probably would have been a chemistry teacher.”

Swayed by his roommates, Blazcovek spent four very full years at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy. He passed the wet lab — a pharmacy school rite of passage in those days — and learned how to roll out solutions. He started an internship that took him to St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where he helped launch a hospital residency program and met a registered nurse, Peggy, who became his wife. After graduation, Blazkovec became a supervising pharmacist for a team of 17 pharmacists at St. Mary’s Hospital — an echo of his earlier trips with his uncle.

“Working with the team at the hospital was how I got my people skills in line,” he says.

Transitioning to a law career

While he was enjoying his work at St. Mary’s, and against his earlier ambitions, he felt a pull toward law.

“I thought, I’ll take the LSAT and see if I get into law school, and if I don’t, OK — nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he says. “I passed and got accepted to the night program at the University of Toledo College of Law. Without my Big Ten UW–Madison degree, I don’t think I would have gotten into law school.” 

He began working at Toledo Hospital during the day and going to law school at night. Joking that it took him seven years to “give law a shot,” Blazkovec describes his attitude toward law school as more of a mission than a hunger.

“I had a different perspective about it because I had the pharmacy degree in my back pocket, so this was just icing on the cake,” he says. “Now here I am, a partner in a law firm, and I own the building. It all worked out.” 

Blazkovec started practicing law with his father, Jacob P. Blazkovec, in 1995, covering family law, criminal law, estate planning and probate, and real estate — so he has seen it all. 

“I’ve seen people go to prison,” he says. “On the other side of it, I’m city attorney for the cities of Algoma and Kewaunee, so we get the stop sign runners. Family law is another story unto itself.”

Blazkovec still vividly remembers the day he got sworn in inside the chambers of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Madison as one of his proudest moments. 

“My father moved the court for admission, and our son was maybe six months old,” he says. “That made three Jacob Blazkovecs in the picture with Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. Talk about a mountaintop experience.” 

In his law practice, he relies on compassion to try to lead people to do the right thing. 

“I have a softer side, based on pharmacy,” he says. “You can achieve harmony, and that’s where I come from with my practice.”

Becoming a pharmacy owner

Even with his career in law successfully underway, Blazkovec wasn’t done with pharmacy. Ten years ago, Blazkovec bought a pharmacy — another crowning achievement. 

“We closed on the store in February 2015 and took it from $0 to $4 million in revenue, then bought the building we’d been leasing,” he says. “I did our real estate paperwork.” 

When people ask him why he runs both a law practice and a pharmacy, he replies, “because I can.” 

“The common thread is to give patients and clients the best outcome, even in the direst of circumstances,” he says. “My values as a lawyer and pharmacist are accountability, honesty, trustworthiness, and compassion. Your word is your honor.”

He checks into the pharmacy twice a month and calls more often than that. 

“I like going in,” he says. “I was in the store the day of our 10-year anniversary of owning the pharmacy, and I brought everyone ice cream to say thank you. That’s how I’m wired.”

And while it’s been about four years since he last filled a prescription, he keeps his license active because of the people. 

“When people say, ‘You made a difference. You really helped,’ that is what keeps me going,” he says. “The human touch reverberates with people in law and pharmacy. There’s so much kindness in Wisconsin.”