Sylvia Sawyer Kietzman, beloved wife of Dr. Benjamin P. Kietzman and mother of Timothy John Kietzman, Sylvia Myrna Holmes, Ralph William Kietzman and Alice Aboye Sutor was born at 729 Irving Avenue, Wheaton, Illinois on February 15, 1930 as the twin sister of Spencer Sawyer, and sibling of Myron, John L. Jr, Ellen, and Josiah. She was home schooled by her mother, Kathleen, through her middle school years, and later graduated from Wheaton Community High School. She attended Wheaton College as an English literature major and a soloist in the Women's Glee Club. She met her future husband, Benjamin Kietzman, during her junior year and was married to him on June 25, 1955.

Following Benjamin's graduation from Indiana University Medical School in 1956, she and her husband moved to the Panama Canal Zone where Benjamin served as an intern and surgical resident at Gorgas Hospital and Sylvia served as a Primary School teacher at Balboa Heights grammar school.

In 1959 Benjamin and Sylvia were accepted as members of the Sudan Interior Mission for service at the Kano Eye Hospital in Northern Nigeria. During their 19 years of service in Kano, Sylvia served initially as the principal of a small school for blind boys, and later served as a teacher of Bible knowledge for secondary students in the local government colleges.

In 1978 Ben & Sylvia and their four children returned to the USA where Benjamin was accepted as a cataract and oculoplastic surgeon at the Wheaton Eye Clinic. They established their home at 0N620 Indian Knoll Road in West Chicago's Highlake neighborhood, where they lived for 41 years until Sylvia's passage into God's presence on August 7, 2020. During these years Sylvia participated in the College Church choir and the Elizabethan choral ensemble, a delight in the weekly fabric of her life.

She and Benjamin enjoyed the prayerful and financial support of College Church during their 19 years of service in Nigeria, and the warm fellowship and worship there since their return from Nigeria.

Sylvia and Benjamin have often contemplated their beautiful life of 65 years of a marriage made in Heaven, and they wish to give God the glory for His wonderful goodness to them.

A visitation will be held Monday August 10, 2020 from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at Hultgren Funeral Home, 304 N Main St., Wheaton, IL, 60187. Due to COVID guidelines, only 50 guests may be allowed into the building at one time and are asked to wear a mask.

A service and interment will be held privately. All are invited to view a livestream of the service held Tuesday August 11, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. To view the service please click here.

Memorial gifts may be directed to the College Church Missions Program.