Nothing was quite right as St. Edward Central Catholic High School began its second day of 2015-2016 classes Wednesday morning: A lightning strike the night before had knocked out the system that rings bells between class periods. Staffers couldn’t explain the bell problem over the public address system because that had been knocked out, too. And the school’s beloved leader, Father Edward Seisser, was not there to bail things out.
Seisser, who was pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in West Dundee and St. Mary Catholic Church in Gilberts as well as superintendent of St. Edward and the other Elgin-area Catholic schools, died unexpectedly on Sunday night at the age of 57. He reportedly fell ill while driving between Elgin and Rockford. An autopsy was to be conducted Wednesday to determine what caused the sudden illness.
“He was here just last week working with the teachers to prepare for the new school year,” St. Ed secretary Lauren Jazwiec said as the school staff scrambled to deal with the electronic malfunctions. “It seems like he should be walking through that door at any minute and showing us what to do.”
School registrar Angie Cholewa began to weep as she recalled her 15 years of friendship with the Elgin-born priest.
Tuesday night’s storm damage reminded Cholewa of a personal kindness Seisser had shown her family.
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“If a family needed him in any way, he would be there,” Cholewa said. “When my children were at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago for the passing of my children’s grandfather, there were three tornadoes in the area that day, too, and the hospital was running on generator power. But Father came through the door, carrying his Rosary beads, to sit with us. Who drives 40 miles through a storm to do something like that?”
Guidance counselor Kerry O’Brien said Seisser “loved the school and all the kids. He knew them on so many levels — spiritually, as a teacher, as a coach, as a friend. He sacrificed so much for the children in his time and his energy.”
Mike Aydt, who teaches physical education and coaches basketball and baseball, recalled how Seisser had a special affection for sports. The priest helped coach the St. Ed basketball team before his time became consumed by also having to lead two parishes and supervise the Elgin Deanery’s elementary schools. “He was always there if you needed something.”
“He would take time for everybody,” agreed Jazwiec. “He’d say, ‘Come in and shut the door. What do you need?'”
“It was very rare for him to say ‘no’ to any need,” said Business Manager Jan Schroeder. “If you wanted your kids to have a Catholic education but couldn’t afford it, Father was very good at figuring out a way to pay for that.”
Fittingly, the Seisser family asks that funeral flowers be omitted but invites friends to donate memorials to St. Edward in Seisser’s name for use in a scholarship fund.
Born in Elgin in 1957, Seisser didn’t become a priest until he was 40, though he did attend a Catholic university and theology school and had worked in a church-related food service.
His entire career was spent in the Elgin-Rockford area. That included stints as parochial vicar at St. John Neumann Church in St. Charles, as pastor of St. Mary Church of Elgin, and as pastor of Holy Family Church in Rockford. From 2006-2009 he was the principal at St. Edward.
In recent years he lived in West Dundee.
Seisser is survived by his mother, Shirley, plus two brothers and two sisters. Jazwiec said that every year Seisser took off two weeks to vacation with his family.
Mass of the Christian burial will be held at St. Catherine of Siena Church, 845 W. Main Street in West Dundee, at 11 a.m. Friday, with Father David Finn officiating. Visitation will take place at that church from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, with the Rosary being said at 7, and on Friday from 10 to 10:45 a.m.
Burial will follow at Mount Hope Cemetery in Elgin.
Schroeder said the high school plans to hold a ceremony in Seisser’s honor at the beginning of the season for basketball, the sport he loved to coach.