Sybille Zeldin

ZELDIN SYBILLE (nee WURZ) Sybille Zeldin (née Würz) passed away on September 14, 2021, at her home in Philadelphia, after courageously battling cancer. Born on June 6, 1939 in Bregenz on the Bodensee, and raised in Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, Sybille was the devoted wife of William F. ("Bill") Brinkman for the past nineteen years. She is survived by her husband; her three daughters and their spouses, Stefanie Sigal (Zeldin) and her husband Robert, Claudia Zeldin and her husband Daniel Katzner, and Jessica Zeldin and her husband Johnston de F. Whitman, Jr.; her two stepsons and their spouses, David Brinkman and his wife Leslie, and Curtis Brinkman and his wife Jennifer; her six grandchildren, Rebecca, Emily, Julia, Jason, Nina, and Johnston; and her five step-grandchildren, Zachary, Tucker, Caroline, Harrison, and Gardner. Known to family and close friends as "Omi," Sybille moved from Germany's Black Forest region to Philadelphia after marrying her first husband, Martin J. Zeldin, in 1960. He and Sybille were Society Hill pioneers, and raised their daughters there before Sybille expanded her geographic footprint. Whether in Philadelphia, Long Beach Island, San Miguel, Princeton, Washington, D.C., or the numerous exotic designations to which her wanderlust drew her, Sybille's boundless creativity transformed the rudimentary into the extraordinary. After mastering ceramics at the University of the Arts, and serving as a resident artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Sybille continued to brighten our lives with her fine and unique works in watercolor and silk screen. No artistic medium could confound her unceasing ability to inhabit and reflect beauty. Sybille's love of family and friends, and zest for entertaining are indelible, as those to whom she often played host can surely attest. Unsurprisingly, even in her final days, Sybille keenly focused upon the happiness and comfort of those around her, and could not be dissuaded from staging events and preparing meals for others. Never short on opinions, Sybille initiated healthy debates on a vast array of topics; her skills, no doubt, fine-tuned by her love of attending programs with her husband Bill at the Philosophical Society. Sybille's creativity, spontaneity, and unflagging extraction of the beauty in all things will live on through all members of her family and all those fortunate enough to have known her. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Clay Studio, Resident Artists Zeldin Fellowship, https://public.theclay studio.org/public/donateguest, 137-139 North Second St., Philadelphia, PA 19106.