Richard "Rick" Bryl

Richard "Rick" Bryl passed away peacefully on April 7, 2025 at a remarkable 80 years young. A life-long resident of Milwaukee and loving husband of his wife Linda for 54 years, together they raised three children Adrienne (Brian Armitage), Andy (Amy), and Alyssa who are now all in different cities of the U.S., and sometimes the world. He has one grandson Donovan Bryl and has had multiple grandcats (Coco, Buddy, Phoebe, Egon) and a granddog (Snoopy).
Rick proudly attended high school at Bradley Tech, or "Boys Tech" as it was known back then. After high school, he trained as an apprentice in the sheet metal trade and was a passionate member of the Sheet Metal Workers Labor Union 18 for 30+ years. Throughout his career, he worked on sites across Wisconsin but was involved in many local projects in Milwaukee. From the U.S. Bank building downtown (which used to be Milwaukee's only skyscraper) to the local FBI field office, Rick made an impact with his work all over town. There's a good chance you've probably walked into one of the many businesses or buildings that he worked on.
One of his proudest projects was being involved in the crew that worked on the construction of Milwaukee's Miller Park (American Family Field) from 1996-2001. His name is included on the "Worker's Wall" outside the stadium that lists the names of the 5,000+ men and women who worked to create a great stadium for the city of Milwaukee. Rick always spoke with pride about the stadium and loved telling stories of the construction. He even snuck in a disposable camera to take photos of the project during construction and enjoyed sharing his "secret" photos with friends and family. Throughout his whole life, Rick was a great lover of Wisconsin sports and got to witness his favorite major teams all win championships: The Milwaukee Braves in 1957, the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s, 1996, and 2010 and the Bucks in 1971 and 2021. The next time you visit Miller Park/American Family Field, we invite you to visit the Worker's Wall and look for Rick's name. He loved watching the Milwaukee Brewers and was honored to contribute to building a ballpark that so many Milwaukeeans have gotten to enjoy over the years.
In his younger days, Rick was an avid pool player, meeting his wife (a non-pool player) through a mutual friend, and an amateur drag boat racer where he met many lifelong friends. He enjoyed playing sheepshead with his brother Jim and their friends. After retirement, his hobby of collecting brought a new joy to his life. He became inspired by local tractor company Allis Chalmers and treasure hunting for AC memorabilia started to be a fun adventure for him. Buying and selling tractors (both real and toy), collecting various items for friends and family at garage sales, and visiting 7-Mile Fair and thrift stores took up most of his day. There were frequent trips to Menard's as well, of course. He would typically start his day with coffee and a pastry while watching "Morning Joe" and other news programs. He would do his best to catch every local sports game and would faithfully discuss the results and highlights with his son, Andy. In the afternoons, he'd put on a Western or any John Wayne movie while tinkering on his latest project. At night, he'd find re-runs of Johnny Carson.
When Covid hit, Rick struggled with being stuck inside. He'd frequently sneak off to Menard's or his other "haunts" for the chance to socialize like he normally did. Rick truly loved meeting people in person and chatting away in the diner, shop, or parking lot. While there were many pleas from Linda and the kids to stay home unless absolutely necessary, the idea of not being able to tell stories or talk shop with strangers was too much for him to handle. Although he had a shy side to him, Rick really came alive and brought smiles to all with his expressive, fun storytelling.
In an age of growing technology, Rick remained an analog man. He lived without using a computer, internet, or smartphone - Linda was always relaying others' online messages to him. He was always excited to see the frequent travel pictures from his children and pictures of his happy grandson and silly grandcats. A week before his passing, he FaceTimed with his grandson Dono, who showed Rick his Lightning McQueen car wash that Rick and Linda gifted him for his 4 birthday.
In addition to his rejection of technology, he was filled with many other lovable quirks. He used to keep a toy rat on his car dashboard, prompting Alyssa to continue the tradition (which scared Adrienne when she borrowed the car one day -- she immediately stowed DashRat in the glove box). He had a blind hatred of spinach from the unappetizing canned spinach of his youth and for the rest of his life, he refused to believe that spinach could ever be palatable. No matter where, even in California visiting Andy, he expected that a Miller Lite or MGD would be available at any bar or restaurant. Stemming from his love of Allis Chalmers, he started to buy anything in bright orange (including his car). His fashion sense also brought smiles: He loved wearing flannels, beer shirts, anything with a Wisconsin sports logo, and always dark blue Dickies work pants. He also loved to jokingly answer phone calls from friends and family and say "Hello, you've reached Menard's!"
Lastly, Rick was a Renaissance man of anything mechanical or related to the home. It felt like he could fix, partially fix, or diagnose any problem in the house. He had every tool, every screw, any spare part you would need, and if not, he was back from AutoZone or Menard's in a flash. Whether it be car, boat, tractor, virtually anything with a motor caught his interest. He could repair and rebuild an entire outboard boat motor – this stemmed from his drag racing days where he'd go boating with friends around the Midwest. When Andy's Mustang broke down one day, he replaced the water pump and belt without ever looking at instructions. He could install virtually any HVAC system and loved to comment, inspect, and inquire on ventilation systems in homes and in public. His endless curiosity was inspiring.
Preceded in death by his parents, Ted and Alice; brothers Jim (Nancy) and Larry, brothers-in law Paul Tuschel and Lee Tuschel Jr., half-brother Jason. Survived by brothers-in-law David (Karen) Tuschel and Mark (Melody) Tuschel, half-sister Sally, nephew Jeff (Brenda) Bryl, nieces Janine (Jerome) Lange and Denise LeHolm, and many other relatives and friends. Our family would like to express our gratitude to the SICU team at Froedert Hospital for their care.
In writing this, we've found how difficult and impossible it is to summarize someone's life. There is simply too much to tell, but we hope that this has reminded you of a favorite memory or story of our dear Rick. He lived an amazing life for his 80 years. On his last day, he got to enjoy his Sunday morning ritual of attending 7-Mile Fair for the last time and later that day, both the Brewers and Bucks won-we'd like to think it was for him and that he'd think that was a nice goodbye.