Arthur M. Streich

He had wonderful stories to tell because he lived a purposefully wonderful life. Arthur Matthew Streich worked hard to build his life with love, honor, warmth, wisdom, intelligence, curiosity, kindness, generosity, compassion and fun. Dapper, silver-haired, quick-minded and nearly always sunny, his laughter would fill a room as easily as his love filled the home he made with the late Laurel Jean Kennedy for nearly 58 years. He answered her every “I love you, Honey,” with “I love you too, Dear.” He had limitless curiosity about how things worked, what things had happened in the past, and why things are as they are in the present. A riveting raconteur, he could tell family stories from another century in such detail you’d feel like you were there. His love of history was so keen and his knowledge so deep that he could tell you the history of toothpicks or the geopolitical importance of tulips or the importance of salt to human history and keep you glued to your seat wondering why you’d never wondered about those things before. With a brilliant engineer’s mind that could understand incredible complexity and yet offer stunningly clear solutions, he could just as easily (and often) break into silly and spontaneous stories and song, recalling tunes from his Depression-era childhood, his college years spent singing with Navy buddies in the showers of Truax Field, or his courting days. Up until his last days he greeted family members with rousing renditions of “Good Morning to You!” and “Come Josephine in Your Flying Machine.” And, he sweetly serenaded his dear departed Laurel with “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” before bed at night. Simple things like brightly colored birds, sunshine and knowing the temperature of his beloved Nagawicka Lake made him happy. A good bowl of morning oatmeal, a nice lunchtime plate of liver and onions, or a nighttime treat of ice cream elicited from him a grinning, “Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm!” with every bite. Art was born the only child of bricklayer Arthur Herman Streich and homemaker Eleanor (nee Schmidtkuntz) Streich on September 9th, 1925. A bright and curious boy in a city that offered free and easy access to parks, museums, outdoor swimming pools, natatoriums and golf courses, Art thought Milwaukee was a wide world he needed to explore. He delivered a free weekly newspaper to earn a nickel so that he could ride the street cars from one end of the city to the other or go sit for hours in a movie house after which he would go home and tell his “poor, patient” mother Ella every single detail of every single movie scene. Then the bricklayer’s son who had worked at a Milwaukee ice house, sold ice cream to students and served coffee to teachers at Rufus King High school during school hours, worked nights at Militzer’s Bakery, and flipped burgers and eggs-over-easy as a fry cook -all before finishing high school - joined the Navy in 1942 at 17. And, the world opened even wider to him. Art graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1945. As part of his continuing naval service he reported to the Navy Steam Engineering School at New Port, Rhode Island and the U.S. Naval School of Naval Justice at Port Hueneme where his desire to attend law school was first born. His navy travels carried him to ports in California, the Panama Canal and even to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina where he rode out a hurricane in the rocking boiler room of his ship in June of that year. Making good on the GI bill after serving, Art returned to Wisconsin in 1946 and gained admission to the UW Law School. During the summers he found a job working in the Patent Law Department of Allis Chalmers. After he finished law school in January of 1949, he was hired full-time at Allis Chalmers as a patent attorney until he retired in 1987 as Corporate Patent Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary. After working at Chalmers for a while Art fell hard for a redheaded kindergarten teacher he met on a double date in 1956. The problem was he and the redhead weren’t each other’s dates. Realizing that he was paired with the wrong woman and she with the wrong fellow, Art happily maneuvered to get Laurel Kennedy’s attention and then her affection. He loved to tell the story of how he figured out that Laurel attended the Wednesday evening service at St. Aloysius in West Allis, WI. And, of how he sat in the pew behind her calculating where he’d need to be in line to end up kneeling right next to her when it was time to take communion. It was his way of saying, “ I have serious intentions about you, lady.” It was also the moment that he won her heart. Where she realized that she could “take his hand and walk anywhere on earth.” He considered that his life’s finest moment. A city boy who’d fallen in love with the Wisconsin countryside after boyhood summer excursions with his aunts, uncles and close boyhood friend and cousin, Don Schmidtkunz, Art picked a modest home right on the shore of Nagawicka Lake to bring his new bride home to after they married in July of 1957. Deeply in love, they began their family in July of 1958. He was a nurturing father who got up every night to bottle-feed all five of his babies - John, Mary, Christine, Greg and Julia -because his young wife Laurel was ill and needed her night’s rest. He taught his kids swimming - making the first swim of the summer mandatory “clothes-on” in case anybody ever accidentally fell into their backyard lake and needed to know how to get out. He taught them skiing, sailing and bike riding - sometimes with two or three kids at the same time strapped rather ingeniously (if not a little dangerously by today’s standards) to his own bike. As adults he taught them all the art of a fine 5 o’clock martini. Most important to him, he taught them how to be excellent human beings. He believed in teaching his kids things by doing that thing with them rather than just showing them. He encouraged their ideas, dreams and adventures. He listened first, fully, before offering his advice so that they knew they were heard and respected. He instilled in them the values of compassion, fairness, hard work and his lifelong Catholicism. He was a loving, supportive, protective, reassuring father who didn’t make any difference between the children his wife gave him and the people his children brought into his family through marriage. He welcomed John’s Gayle, Mary’s Steve, and Greg’s Melvina with open arms, a kiss on the cheek, and many good stories. And he celebrated all five grandchildren as if he’d invented the very idea of grandchildren. He took Zachary, Haley, Rachel, Jacob and Sage on leisurely pontoon tours of Lake Nagawicka, treated them to Sentry Friday Night Fish fries, and gave all the time and attention he could give to each of their lives. He wanted to know how their school lives were, to know their opinions, to hear how they were taking on the world, and to share in their joys – to know if they were having fun in life. Despite having lost his own father when he was 19, a child of his own as a young father, his hearing in his 40s, his elderly mother and then his loving wife of nearly six decades, Art’s outlook over his lifetime remained one of deep and sincere gratitude. He’d often say, “I don’t know how I’ve been so blessed.” And he’d just as often say “Thank you.” To his wife, to his children, to his extended family, to his CNA Amy, and the residential attendants who cared for him so tenderly at Lake Country Landing. And to God. A big, beautiful, smiling, sincere “Thank you.” Art often said that he counted among his three biggest blessings finding the perfect wife, marrying into her big family and then having a big family of his own. Along with all his children, he will be missed by Laurel’s siblings -Ed (who married the late Mickey and then found love again and married Geneva), Mary (who married Joe), Peggy (who married Bill), Wilma (who married Jim), Mike (who married Kathy) and Larry (who married Jan). He was a beloved uncle and great uncle to many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. He made brothers for life with NROTC fellows and their wives. He made lifelong friends of neighbors, at the Yacht Club, at American Legion Post 196, in the Lions Club, while serving on the Board of Appeals for the City of Delafield and the Insurance Trust Fund of Allis Chalmers, and as a dedicated member of St Joan of Arc Parish. Art’s family is comforted that he has joined Laurel in heaven. And, in knowing that his life was one beautiful story. Funeral Mass for Arthur will be held at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 120 Nashotah Road in Nashotah on Friday, August 7, 2015 at 12:00 PM, officiated by Father Michael Strachota. Visitation will be from 10:00 AM until the time of Mass, all to be held at the church. Burial will take place following Mass at Delafield City Cemetery. Following the burial, a reception will be held at the Nagawicka Lake Yacht Club, 1131 Mariner Drive in Hartland from 2:30 PM until 5:30 PM.