Bay View mourns loss of its ‘bishop,’ the Rev. Tom Wittliff
In 1988, a year after graduating from St. Thomas More High School, Chris Clarey was working at Brickyard Gym in Bay View, saw a man exercising and thought, “Who’s this older guy?”
“He’s working out harder than people half his age,” Clarey remembers thinking. “I struck up a conversation or two with him at that point, not really knowing who he was.”
Not long after that meeting, Clarey heard there was going to be a new priest at St. Augustine Parish, the Rev. Tom Wittliff, and he went to Mass to meet the new priest.
Clarey couldn’t believe who he saw dressed in the pastoral vestments.
“That’s the guy from the gym!” Clarey remembers thinking.
Clarey’s story of meeting Wittliff is similar to a number of stories south side Milwaukee residents have of him. They may have seen Wittliff riding his bike, in a parade or on a city bus. They may have met him at a restaurant or an event in the neighborhood. And many across the south side came to know Wittliff in retirement, when he regularly substituted as needed at other parishes.
Wittliff was known by the informal title of the “Bishop of Bay View” and his congregation spread beyond the walls of any church.
On March 12, at age 82, Wittliff died, and the past few weeks his many followers and friends have been sharing fond stories of him and his impact. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, many more may not have heard about his passing.
A celebrate his life is planned for as soon as public gathers are possible again.
“His personality was just off the charts. I can’t even compare it to anybody,” Clarey said. “He’s the one who put my wife and I together.”
Clarey and his wife, Sue, taught together at St. Augustine
School. Now Clarey is a teacher at St. Thomas More High School.
Wittliff also married the Clareys and baptized their three children.
“He stood out,” Clarey said. “He was such a prominent figure in the community there. You always saw him in parades. He was always riding around the neighborhood on his bike.”
Also known as ‘FT’ or ‘Father Tom’
Wittliff was ordained on Memorial Day in 1964. Although never on the staff, he connected with St. Thomas More during his 18 years at St. Augustine and continuing into his retirement in 2006.
A 1955 graduate of St. Francis Minor Seminary, considered a predecessor of St. Thomas More, he was inducted into the St. Thomas More Alumni Hall of Fame in 2014. The school also honored him with its Chancellor Award for “exceptional, continuous support” of Catholic education in Milwaukee.
How Wittliff became known as the “Bishop of Bay View” is not entirely clear. He preferred to be called “FT” for “Father Tom.”
But Clarey said Wittliff earned the bishop name from the Bay View community.
“Not officially any title that he was given by the archdiocese, but that’s what the people were calling him,” Clarey said. “I don’t know if he liked it or not, but everyone talked about him like ‘oh the Bishop of Bay View, Father Tom.’ ”
Jimmy Litscher, who graduated from St. Thomas More in 2006 and eventually became a teacher at the high school, said it was not uncommon to walk into a restaurant with Wittliff and watch him greet multiple people at multiple tables.
“The guy knew everybody,” Litscher said. “We would go out to eat a lot of times … and everywhere he would go he knew somebody. He’s like a local celebrity.”
Like Clarey, Litscher and his wife, Melannie, were married by Wittliff and their children were also baptized by him, too.
For many, the first time they met Wittliff was at the high school, where he would often talk to students in the cafeteria or at sporting events.
Mary McIntosh, president of the school, said of Wattliff ’s passing: “St. Thomas More High School will never be the same without Father Tom, but his joy and love will live on in our hearts forever.”
Litscher played football, basketball and baseball for the Cavaliers and remembers after Wittliff would say the pregame prayer with the football team, he would go to his car in the parking lot and blast the song “Get Down On It” by Kool & the Gang to hype up the team. He even had a football jersey with “FT” on the back of it.
Now a coach for the football team, Litscher remembers some of the lessons Wittliff taught him about sports.
Litscher said Wittliff would focus on the lessons sports can teach student-athletes beyond just competition.
“Which is really what sports are all about,” Litscher said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like winning … but it’s more so about what the sport can teach you.”
Even after he graduated, Litscher would go to Wittliff for advice.
One thing Litscher remembers Wittliff telling him is “happiness lies in what is, not in what could be.”
“That’s something that always stuck with me,” Litscher said. “Sometimes we worry about what could be and we don’t allow ourselves to live in the moment and be happy with what we have.”
Litscher said there were plans to have Wittliff’s Mass of Christian Burial at the Basilica of St. Josaphat, 2333 S. 6th St.
As he was helping plan the original funeral, Litscher thought, “This is going to be the biggest funeral I’ll ever see.”
“I’m not exaggerating,” Litscher said. “The funeral was supposed to take place at the Basilica of St. Josaphat and that place would’ve been packed, standing room only. In fact, I could easily see people not being able to go in because there’s not enough room.”
When there is a memorial service, Litscher and Clarey expect the number of people that honor their bishop to be in the thousands.
“I’m a better person because of everything he taught me,” Litscher said. “He helped me out whenever I needed things. And you can find hundreds of thousands of people who would say the same thing about how, either they’re the person they are today because of Father Tom or they’re alive today because of what Father Tom did.”