Sylvia Sells Reis

September 10, 1936 - January 11, 2017

In Celebration of her Life. From the time she first saddled up to race her childhood friends across the Nevada desert, Sylvia was an adventure waiting to happen. She grew up in a small cowboy town where everyone knew everyone else in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The town was Las Vegas before it exploded into the Entertainment Capital of the American West, and family vacations centered on summers at Mr. Charleston and boating on Lake Mead on the Colorado River.

The peace-time years following World War II brought a full schedule for the vivacious young brunette. When she wasn’t busy with school work, her spare time was filled with dancing lessons, piano recitals, modeling shows, and riding her quarter horse with the Junior Buckaroos Drill Team. Through it all, she developed exquisite taste under the loving guidance of her beautiful mother Ora Sells. Passengers arriving at the old Vegas airport were welcomed by a larger-than-life photo of Mrs. Sells on horseback beside family friend, U.S. Senator Pat McCarran who steered projects to Nevada to fuel the state’s post-war growth.

Life was good in those years and during that time the fun-loving and spirited girl honed a strong self-discipline and innate confidence instilled by her mother who taught her that all things were possible. In the days before women’s liberation and equal opportunity, Sylvia set her sights on a fulfilling life. She graduated from Las Vegas High School and threw herself into college studies at the University of Arizona with a single-minded zeal that characterized everything she ever undertook.

During college Sylvia secured a summer job with a contractor for the Atomic Energy Commission. Through REECO she witnessed two of the last nuclear tests to be conducted in the Nevada desert. Witnessing first- hand the perils of the nuclear age strengthened her resolve to experience as much as she could of what she called “the breathtaking beauty of God and man’s creations.”

And so, mid-way through college Sylvia persuaded three friends to accompany her to Europe the summer of 1956. Together the young girls discovered a whole new world beyond their sheltered lives in the American West. Through the experience of new people and cultures Sylvia became permanently hooked on travel. The enthusiastic young achiever graduated magna cum laude in 1958 and joined Pi Lambda Theta, an honor society for educators, and Phi Kappa Phi, an invitation-only honor society for all academic disciplines.

Following college, Sylvia began teaching fourth grade in California. In summertime she continued her education and combined her studies with more travel. In 1959 she toured Mexico with her family and took courses at the University of Mexico. Europe and Mexico had whet her appetite for travel and in the summer of 1960 the fearless 23-year-old booked passage to South America by herself. She traveled down the Pacific Coast from Panama to Chile, around Cape Horn and back up through Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, ending in Trinidad and Curacao in the Caribbean. Highlights of her trip included Machu Picchu in Peru and the giant Iguassu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. Adventure would become a life-long goal.

In 1962 Sylvia took a leave of absence from teaching and moved to Washington D.C. where she joined the staff of Senator Howard Cannon of Nevada. She was serving there when the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted. The following year she obtained a post with the State Department in Paris where she arrived in 1963. She was in the French capital when President Kennedy was assassinated in Texas. She witnessed the grief of the French people who had embraced the Kennedy’s as friends of their nation. From earliest days Sylvia built cherished relationships that would last a life time. Her friend Marlene spoke for all when she said, “She was the best at maintaining old friendships and making new friends wherever she went.” Another friend spoke of Sylvia’s generous heart. While traveling through Europe on a shoe-string-budget, the friend reached Paris where Sylvia insisted on sharing her tiny apartment. The friend enjoyed a month in Paris she could not otherwise afford.

When Sylvia’s Paris assignment ended in 1965 she returned to California to resume her teaching career. At the start of each school year friends and family were treated to an exuberant letter describing Sylvia’s latest crop of fresh-faced children. She loved her students and she taught with a dedication she shared with colleagues in the Burlingame school system whose professionalism inspired her. Sylvia’s teaching career enabled her to continue traveling during summers off, and her mother sometimes joined her adventures. In 1972 she toured East and South Africa with a college friend Kay and a friend from Paris days, Margie. The experience and unique smells of Africa lingered all her life, and she treasured her memories of game preserves, awe-inspiring animals, spectacular scenery, and cordial Africans.

The loss of her mother in 1974 left Sylvia resolved to expand her travels. In 1979, she took a sabbatical from teaching to pursue her dream of a year-long trip around the world. She concentrated on Asia and spent weeks at a time in nearly every country of what she called “that magnificent continent.” Her motto throughout life became: Love to travel, the more exotic the better.

When Sylvia returned from her travels she settled into life in her beloved San Francisco. It was there she met an engineer and widower who would become the love of her life and her husband in 1985. Stan Reis was easily won over to his new wife’s infectious passion for travel, and he too became a Francophile when the couple honeymooned in France.

Sylvia retired from teaching in 1992 and between travels with her husband, she poured herself into volunteer work. She was a past president of the Century Club of California and served on the Activities, Wine, and Food committees of the Town and Country Club. The women she worked with and the friends she made were a source of joy, she always said. She was a supporter of the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, and Ballet and a member of Friends of the San Francisco Library. She also supported the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as a Museum Member for Asian Art and Fine Arts (De Young & Legion of Honor). As lover of everything French, Sylvia and her husband Stan enjoyed celebrating Bastille Day whenever they were home in July. They entertained with French cheeses, pates, homemade sweets, and Stan’s fabled French 75 cocktails. They enjoyed hosting dinner parties, usually with a French menu, and Sylvia became an accomplished chef, to her husband’s endless delight. When the Blue Angels performed overhead during San Francisco Fleet Week, the couple enjoyed their unobstructed view of Alcatraz.

Whenever Sylvia and Stan indulged their itch to travel, friends would ask, “Where are you off to next?” Each year brought a well-planned adventure with new sites and old favorites revisited. Together they became world travelers, visiting six continents, whose countries included Argentina, the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, Spain, Portugal, Germany’s Rhine River, England, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, and favorite sites in the U.S. And through the years the two always returned to - France where they enjoyed their favorite provinces and people, while savoring Michelin 3 star cuisine, the charms of Relais & Chateaux and the country’s numerous and world-famed varieties of cheese.

To her friends, Sylvia was a lover of life, a citizen of the world, a generous blithe spirit, and a living embodiment of the saying, “It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness.” Her childhood friend Marlene told how she got Sylvia interested in baseball when she was facing a health challenge in 2010. Sylvia plunged into the game with the same thoroughness and verve she brought to all her undertakings. She was overjoyed when the San Francisco Giants rewarded their avid fans by winning the pennant and the World Series.

Stan Reis summed up his wife as a “wonderful life partner with a kind and loving nature, the bright spot in my life.” Sylvia returned the sentiments: Stan was her love, her joy, a gentleman and her beloved husband. It was a match made in heaven.

Sylvia is survived by her husband Stanley Roy Reis; her sister, Beverly Lalicker of Lancaster, CA; her niece Andrea Lalicker of Santa Clarita, CA; Stan’s daughter Barbara Samii and son-in-law Kianoosh Samii of San Francisco; brother-in-law Joaquin Reis, niece-in-law Michele Gajda and nephew-in-law Lee Gajda of Lafayette, CA.

A funeral mass will be celebrated Thursday August 31st at 10:00am at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, 2390 Bush Street (crossstreet is Steiner), San Francisco, CA.

In lieu of flowers please donate to your favorite charity.