Arnold P. Eisele, 79
Blue Earth A memorial service for Arnold P. Eisele, a Blue Earth native who died in Palm Springs, Fla., last October, will be held at Calvary Cemetery, Blue?Earth, at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, July 19, 2013.
Eisele, age 79, requested he be cremated and his ashes buried in the family plot next to his parents, Susan and Albert Eisele, and his brother, Joseph, and three siblings who died as infants. The Rev. Peter Schuster of St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Fairmont, will officiate.
A reception will be held at the Blue Earth American Legion club immediately after the memorial service. Friends and relatives are invited.
Eisele owned and operated the Fish Fantasia pet store in West Palm Beach since 1971 after moving from Long Island, N.Y., where he ran a sports promotion company. He had been in ill health for several years, but ran the store with his stepson and partner, Michael Erickson, until shortly before his death.
Eisele is survived by his stepson and a stepdaughter, Debra Jay, of Grosse Point Shores, Mich.; a brother, Albert Eisele, of Falls Church, Va.; a sister-in-law, Rose Eisele, of Albuquerque, N.M.; three grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and eight nieces and nephews, including Mark Eisele, of Elmore. His wife Pauline Ann (nee Carlson) died in 1974.
Eisele grew up on a farm in Pilot Grove township. His parents were prominent writers for Catholic periodicals and Midwestern newspapers, including Blue Earth and Fairmont.
After graduating from Blue Earth High School, Eisele entered the Catholic seminary at St. John’s University and Abbey at Collegeville, in 1951. He later transferred to the seminary of his home diocese at St. Mary’s College in Winona, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1954. He then spent three years at the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocesan Seminary but left before ordination.