Date of death: 06/19/2024
Saint Meinrad Class: O 1965
On June 19th, 2024, Dr. Sylvester “Sy” Kreilein passed away in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. A lifelong traveler, humanist, and acclaimed foreign language educator, Dr. Sy Kreilein is survived by his loving wife, Joan Parsley, devoted son, Alex, and thankful daughter-in-law, Amber.
Born in 1939 to Raymond and Lucille Kreilein and brother to Fr. Phil Kreilein, Sy grew up in Jasper, Indiana. He was educated in that region at the Saint Meinrad Seminary (1957-1961), offered the opportunity to complete his studies and Orders in Austria, and over his lifetime, became a known master of German language, culture, and history.
With a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sy would go on to become an award-winning foreign language educator who changed the lives of thousands of students over a 45-year career at Marquette University High School, even completing his career as a visiting professor down the hill at Marquette University.
He helped tear down the Berlin Wall, built a lasting foreign exchange program with colleagues in Bavaria, and brought his passion for the arts of centuries past to the greater Milwaukee community through collaboration with his wife, Joan. Sy spent his life living the example that we can help each other, take chances for ourselves, and enjoy the beauty the world has to offer while being unpretentious and kind. He enjoyed sharing his passions with others and made the world accessible to so many through the ways he did it.
If you speak with his former students, colleagues in the German community, or friends around the world, they will tell you that Sy Kreilein led a life well lived. As a young seminarian in Indiana, Sy took a chance and moved from a small rural town to study in Innsbruck, Austria. In 1961, this was nearly unheard of. He would later say that learning to take chances changed his life.
While at the Leopold-Franzen University’s Canisianum during Vatican II, arguably the most important theological event of the 20th century, Sy was privileged to learn under luminaries such as Karl Rahner and his contemporaries. This changed his views on life, society, and even theology, giving him the permission to find a different path than the one he set out on.
Sy is perhaps best known for having founded MUHS’ German American Partner Exchange with the Christoph Scheiner-Gymnasium in Ingolstadt, Germany – now in its 36th year. He ensured that trips between Germans and Americans would be adventures for young men and women, bringing us closer together. He could do this because he himself had a transformative learning experience abroad – he uniquely understood the importance of cultural immersion as a way of connecting people.
From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Sy traveled extensively to parts of Europe and the Middle East at a time when that was rare – and he became a fuller person for it. Traveling on his NSU motorcycle, Sy had to learn local languages, cultures, and customs. His love for literature and theater was heightened as he frequented East Berlin’s contemporary theater and literature scene, discovering plays by Berthold Brecht and other East German playwrights and authors like Franz Kafka. His mind was like a curio cabinet tightly filled with personal treasures. He was passionate about art and music as well, making them a material part of his life and work.
Even in his earlier life, Sy was dedicated to music. In 1964, he directed the liturgical music opening of the Innsbruck Winter Olympics in the Wilten Basilica. For 20 years, starting in the 1980s, Sy worked closely with his wife Joan Parsley, an early music entrepreneur, to bring the music and culture of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and many others to life in Milwaukee’s concert halls. With her original instrument ensemble, she directed and performed music of the Baroque and Classical periods, and he made composers of another time accessible to concertgoers through his pre-concert lectures. Even when their son Alex was born in 1984, Sy chose the music of C.P.E Bach to be played in the operating room, proving that it is never too early to begin cultural immersion. While Sy also brought the arts and humanities into his classroom, his students will never forget that he held the last 15-minutes of class on Friday’s for them to sing German beer hall songs. To this day, hundreds of his former students still know the words.
Throughout his life, Sy Kreilein was the recipient of a truly stunning number and range of awards for his leadership in the classroom and in the field of German culture. He contributed to and led organizations that focus on preserving and promoting our shared history and aspirations, winning accolades at the national and state levels. He is perhaps one of the most recognized members of the German American community. He is widely known and respected for being a truly great educator and Germanist. And yet, none of this made Sy unrelatable to anyone. Success motivated him to give even more.
Despite the sophistication and accolades, Sy was also an everyday person. He proudly shoveled snow, raked leaves, and cleaned gutters. While he inspired so many to take chances and love complexity, he reinforced that we can do it all without taking anything away from anyone else. He passed these principles onto the young men he educated and people he befriended. Sy Kreilein was a genuine humanist and renaissance man. His voice will be missed, but his love and care are felt each and every day. Immer vorwärts!