Sylvio J. Pollici died peacefully at home on May 18, 2024, at the age of 97. He was born in Bauru, a small town in Brazil. He was preceded in death by his parents, Venancio, and Maria, and his brother Sergio, and sisters Margarida and Marilena. He is survived by his three daughters, Sylvia (William) Robinson, Julie (Dick) Howard, and Tamara Pollici, and three grandchildren.
He grew up with a huge love of music. Dad dreamed of being a symphony conductor, but his father steered him away from music and toward a civil engineering course of study. He came to Boston and studied at Tufts college (to improve his English, and where he met and married his wife Mona) and then at MIT where he graduated with a Degree in Engineering.
After college, Sylvio took his family and moved to Illinois, eventually settling in Glen Ellyn. Dad’s first lead soils investigation was for the foundation of the new (then) St. Barnabas Church. Which is fitting because it was his church for the rest of his life. He still came to services and was an usher and shared conversation and coffee after service in his last year. Sylvio’s work did not stay local. In fact, he worked on projects in Vietnam, Thailand, Venezuela, Algeria, and South Korea. They included an air base, oil refineries, even a high-speed railway. He was well respected in his field.
I do not think any of us got to know all of Sylvio. I think we each saw sides of him. He was an extremely intelligent, complex person. I never saw the Big smile Sylvio, and Dancing Sylvio; I rarely saw his flower loving, beauty seeking, soul searching spiritual sides. I know he cherished his dear church friends and sweet kind neighbors, music, soduko, feeding the birds in the backyard, and enjoying the vista out his kitchen window. He mowed his own grass, I would ask him how he was doing, and he would always say, “Well, I am still alive”. Fiercely independent, he lived in Glen Ellyn until Christmas of 2023, when he moved into his daughters’ home in Tennessee. A huge thank you to his neighbor and church families who helped and watched over him.
Sylvio’s was a life rich in the expressions of his “gifts” of intelligence, creativity, and love of beauty whether in music, flowers or art. Dad insisted that we each have our gifts that we should discover and nurture and express. He hoped we would experience a “metanoia”, a death of the self and find our true purpose in life and become the best versions of ourselves. We will miss you Sylvio, but we will see you again.
There will be a private memorial gathering for the family at Sylvia’s home in Tennessee in mid-June. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to a local animal rescue, or find the time to nurture or express one of your God given gifts in a way that uplifts your spirit. Sylvio would like that.