Thomas L. Eschweiler

Eschweiler, Thomas L. December 3, 1921 to November 2, 2012 Thomas L. Eschweiler passed away peacefully on Nov. 2, 2012, a month shy of his 91st birthday. He was born Dec. 3, 1921 to Alexander C. and Dorothy (Adams) Eschweiler Jr., part of the large Eschweiler family of architects in Milwaukee. Alexander C. Eschweiler Sr. was his grandfather. He grew up on the East Side with his four brothers before attending the Phillips Exeter Academy where he graduated in 1940. He attended Cornell University until WWII broke out, at which time he left to serve in the Army Air Corps. as navigator in B-24 bombers. Returning to college after the war, he transferred into the Cornell School of Architecture, the same school from which his architect father, uncles and grandfather had graduated. Thereafter, he spent several years working in and around New York City before returning to Milwaukee in 1954 to join the Eschweiler & Eschweiler architectural firm. At this time, he also traveled to Koblenz, Germany to visit a German friend who coincidentally had the same last name. There he met and soon married the family's daughter, Gabriele A. Eschweiler. For the next 58 years, Milwaukee was their home. TLE then worked for the architecture firm Herbst, Jacoby & Herbst, followed by a 15 year service at the Milwaukee Public Schools as Director of Construction. He also worked to establish the UWM-School of Architecture and Regional Planning, as well as creating the family-sponsored Professorship in Design. Mr. Eschweiler was also a long time member of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and a founding member of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute. Mr. Eschweiler's most significant legacy will be his founding of the Wisconsin Architectural Archives in 1979. He used the drawings of the defunct Eschweiler & Eschweiler firm as the core collection. In 1983, he and his wife Gabi began what would become a 25 year volunteer commitment at the WAA, continuously adding plans from other Wisconsin architects and significant Wisconsin buildings. They researched missing information and created a four-point cross reference index. By 2004, the WAA contained work 460 architects and nearly 10,500 drawings, the oldest of which dates to 1851. The WAA is now part of the Milwaukee Public Library. Mr. Eschweiler loved working. When not at the archives or office, he joyfully labored outdoors at the family summer cottage in Chenequa, Wisconsin with his beloved Jeep Willy truck and tools. Friends and relatives will long remember him for his great breadth of interests and mischievous wit. He delighted in irreverent teasing but softened it with a broad grin and twinkling eyes. Mr. Eschweiler is survived by his daughters, Liesel Lavery and Andrea (John S.) Rendleman and seven grandchildren: Lt. Alexander C. Lavery, Caroline A. Lavery, John Lavery, Margaret Rendleman, Eleanore C. Rendleman, Alison Rendleman, and Jane Q. Rendleman. The family will have a memorial service on Saturday, January 26, 2013, 2 PM, at the Charles Allis Art Museum, 1801 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee. Donations in Mr. Eschweiler's name can be made to either Milwaukee Public Library Foundation, (Memo: W. A. A.), 814 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233 or the Charles Allis/Villa Terrace Museums, (Memo: TLE-Allis Legacy Fund), 1801 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53202.