Conrad Kaminski, bank president, opera singer and founder of Polish Fest, dies at 84

Conrad Kaminski, who went to work for Lincoln State Bank at age 14 and later rose to become its president as well as an opera singer and the founder of Milwaukee's popular Polish Fest, died of cancer Sept. 8. He was 84.

Kaminski, who was born and raised in Milwaukee, led a rich and varied life.

He was a tenor for the Florentine Opera who loved to sing "Edelweiss," popularized in the musical "The Sound of Music." He performed the song most recently during his days in hospice with the staff of Horizon Home Care and Hospice in Mequon.

He worked as a volunteer police officer in Whitefish Bay.

He spoke Polish and Spanish, and, after retiring from the bank, worked at the Sass Funeral Home at South 15th Street and West Oklahoma Avenue until this past April.

"He worked many hours," said Catherine La Fleur, one of Kaminski's four daughters. "But he always said, 'A man who likes his work has never worked a day in his life.' He loved what he did. "  

Kaminski was born in an apartment above the former Gutowski Funeral Home at South 15th and West Rogers streets in Milwaukee. His parents were Harriet and Zygmunt Kaminski. 

Zygmunt Kaminski was the sports editor for the city's Polish newspaper but died when Kaminski and his younger brother, Thomas, were just boys.

"I've given him a Father's Day card ever since," Thomas Kaminski said. "He was my guiding light all through life. We talked every day. We never had a cross word."

Conrad Kaminski graduated from St. John Kanty and Marquette High School.

In his first job at the bank, he performed odd jobs after school and on weekends for 75 cents an hour.

Kaminski served in the Army, including 13 months spent at Eniwetok Atoll, the Atomic Energy Commission testing ground in the Marshall Islands.

After earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Kaminski worked in advertising at the West Bend Co, and then in promotion and public relations at WITI-TV in Milwaukee.

Kaminski was running his own advertising agency when one of his clients, his boyhood employer Lincoln State Bank, offered him a job as vice president of marketing. The job required that he return to UW for a graduate degree in banking, but he didn't mind.

"He loved it," La Fleur said. "He just loved banking. I think part of it was that he got to go back to where he worked when he was a kid."

The other thing he loved was music. "He'd always be the loudest singer in church," La Fleur said. He went to a few different churches, most recently the Basilica of St. Josaphat.

The values he prized most were hard work and his Catholic faith, La Fleur said.

In 1982, he started Milwaukee's Polish Fest. "It was his pride and joy for a long time," Thomas Kaminski said.

Conrad Kaminski's last job was at the Sass Funeral Home, where he worked with his brother, and penned his own obituary.

"He wrote it himself and put it on the bulletin board," his brother said. "He said, 'This is my obituary. I don't want anything else.' "

Kaminski was married twice and is survived by his second wife, Kathleen Kaminski, his brother and his four daughters.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Oct. 7 at St. Josaphat.