Trevor Wetselaar took great pride in his Navy service
Trevor Wetselaar couldn’t pass up the opportunity to return home to Milwaukee and work at the old Miller brewery.
After six years in the Navy that took him to bases in Virginia and Florida, Wetselaar and his wife, Jane Moy, moved to Milwaukee. Wetselaar became an engine room operator for Molson Coors in 2018.
Back home, he bought a house with Moy on Layton Boulevard. He loved to play fantasy games, trivia and classic board games. If it was cards, Wetselaar was playing sheepshead. He enjoyed tasting Moy’s baking experiments. Everyone was invited to the Wetselaars’ annual “Dutch Christmas” celebration.
Wetselaar, who was 33 when he died in the Molson Coors shootings Feb. 26, grew up in the Milwaukee area. He graduated from Pius XI High School in 2005 and the University of WisconsinMadison in 2009 with a degree in political science. He met his wife while at UW-Madison, where they both worked at a restaurant.
He joined the Navy in 2012, working as a nuclear reactor operator aboard the submarine USS Maryland. His dog Granby was named after a street in Norfolk, Virginia, where Wetselaar was stationed. His service was “his greatest professional pride,” Wetselaar’s family said in a memorial.
When he left the Navy after six years, Wetselaar received job offers across the country, his family said. He went to work at the brewery as an engine room operator. “He couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work at Miller and return home to his friends and family,” his family wrote.
Wetselaar could be a little rough around the edges. He had tattoos. He often sported a big beard. He would often quote “The Simpsons.” His hair was sometimes styled into a mohawk. He wore a big camouflage jacket.
But he is remembered as someone with exceptional charm. He made friends quickly. And kept them for life.
Friend Andrew Moriarity met Wetselaar at UW-Madison at a sheepshead game. Moriarity and Wetselaar became roommates and lifelong friends. They got a cat together in college that Wetselaar named Whiskey. Moriarity had asked Wetselaar to be the best man in his wedding later this year.
“He was a sweet, lovable guy,” Moriarity said. “You didn’t have to get to know him. Right away, you would know.”
Wetselaar and Moy bought their home in 2018 from Sarahbeth Jones and her husband. The whole moving out process took longer than Jones anticipated. “When we were all finished packing up, we then stood around and talked for well over an hour over beers,” she said. He was “easy to talk to and quick to laugh,” Jones said.
A dream of Wetselaar was to run for public office — progressive politics was one of his passions. A signature issue for his campaign would have been automatic voter registration, Moriarity said.
He didn’t take himself too seriously. Wetselaar was, as his family wrote in a memorial, “a perfectly cromulent man,” a reference to “The Simpsons.”
He is survived by his wife, his parents, Janet and Jilles Wetselaar, and brother Anthony Wetselaar.