Esther Emily BROCKMANN

Name: Emiley Esther Brockman

Gender: Female

Birth Date: 5 Jul 1906

Birth Place: Fort Douglass, Utah

Record Type: Birth

Father:

Paul F. Brockman

Mother:

Esther Westherine

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Esther Kiessling

1906 - 2006

FRANKLIN - Esther Emily Brockmann Kiessling, who would have been 100 years old on July 5, died on May 3, 2006, at St. Francis Hospital in West Allis. She entered the hospital on Thursday and was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal cancer.

She was born in Fort Douglas, Utah, on July 5, 1906. She moved with her parents, the Rev. Paul and Esther (Wertheimer) Brockmann, to Waukesha in 1910, and attended grade schools and high schools in Waukesha and Delavan.

Esther attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and then took a position as a teacher at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf at Delavan. She remained on the staff there until her marriage in 1930 to Dr. Elmer C. Kiessling of Northwestern College.

Esther worked at the local Wisconsin Hearing Service office in the 1950s and taught at St. Mark's Lutheran School from 1960 to 1970. After retirement she introduced an American Sign Language course at Madison Area Technical College in Watertown and taught there for several years. She continued teaching students in American Sign Language until 2003. She served as a volunteer at the hospital, Red Cross Blood Bank and the Octagon House, and has been an active member in a local book club, the Friday Review.

In 1944 she edited a series of articles and book reviews that her late husband had written for the Milwaukee Journal from the 1940s to 1980 and published them in a paperback volume.

She had lived in Watertown until December 2003, when she moved to Franklin. In Franklin, she remained a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Watertown.

She is survived by a son, Nicolas, a former professor of English at Washington State University, and his wife, Karen Harris Kiessling; a daughter, Karen, the wife of the Rev. Larry Pautz of Wind Lake; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A son, Dr. Paul Kiessling, died in 1972 and her husband, Elmer, died in 1981.

Esther was known for her elegance, intelligence and joy of life, and she entertained friends at her Franklin apartment on a regular basis until shortly before her death. She will be very much missed by her family and friends.

A private memorial service will be held for family members. The Church and Chapel Funeral Service of Brookfield is in charge of arrangements.

Memorials may be given to the E. C. Kiessling scholarship fund at Martin Luther College, 1995 Luther Court, New Ulm, Minn. 56703.

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