Andrew J. Nielo blazed through several vastly different pursuits in his life: Service as a Marine during World War II, a long career as a bank executive, and ministry as a chaplain counseling inmates at the DuPage County Jail.
The wide range of his interests went beyond work with activities that included gardening, wood carving, hiking in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and playing the conga drums to the calypso music of Harry Belafonte.
“He was a Marine and a master gardener. He was a banker and a drummer in the church band. He was a wood carver and he loved to fish,” said his daughter Beth DeSanto. “When he started working at the jail, I wasn’t sure why he wanted to do that. But he truly thought he could help people.”
Mr. Nielo, 83, a longtime Wheaton resident, died of complications of liver cancer on Monday, July 26, at his home.
Mr. Nielo was born on Chicago’s North Side and attended Lake View High School where he met his future wife, Jean Baker. The couple started dating when they were both 15, married in 1947 and remained together for 63 years.
Right after his high school graduation, Mr. Nielo joined the Marines and went on to be stationed in Nagasaki, Japan. Back in Chicago, he found an entry-level job at First National Bank of Chicago where he remained for 37 years, retiring as a vice president.
As Mr. Nielo approached retirement at the bank, he became more active in his church. In 1980, he was ordained a Catholic deacon.
“He told us that he wanted to do something completely different from what he did at the bank,” DeSanto said.
As a deacon, he ministered at St. Michael Church in Wheaton and St. John the Baptist Church in Winfield where he was also the percussionist in the church band and a longtime parishioner. He also volunteered as a chaplain at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.
But family and friends said it was his ministry at the DuPage County Jail that brought him the most satisfaction.
“He had so much enthusiasm and passion about being here,” said Dawn Domrose, spokeswoman for the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office. “He was always excited about reaching out to people in the jail.”
In a March 2009 interview published in a Joliet diocese magazine, Mr. Nielo spoke about his jail ministry.
“I see it as a time for me to help them get through a difficult time in their life. Their family is suffering. They’re suffering. Victims are suffering. There’s a wide range of guilt all around. If there is something I can do from a spiritual standpoint or a talking and listening standpoint, that’s a possibility of being of some help to an inmate,” he said.
“Jail, in my experience, is a sacred place. It’s a place where, not all, but (some) see it as an opportunity for making a change — and they seize that opportunity. It can be a very powerful experience. I say it’s a sacred place because I see a lot of spirituality in there although it may not be on the surface. It’s there.”
Mr. Nielo created a wealth of personal memories for his family, said his granddaughter Sarah Steinbach.
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“The one who made us laugh by jumping — fully clothed — into the pool on our family vacations. The one we looked forward to seeing at birthdays, holidays, graduations, and well, just any old time we felt like getting together,” she said. “The one who encouraged me, by example, to continue to learn.”
Mr. Nielo is survived by his wife; another daughter, Mary Steinbach; a son, Joseph; five grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Services were held.