Sven W. Waclawski

1970-2018



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Sven W. Waclawski

March 28, 1970 - June 13, 2018

Sven W. Waclawski was born March 28, 1970. Sven's mother, Helga is German, and consequently, Sven grew up bilingual. He attended high school in Wiesbaden, Germany, at General H. H. Arnold High School and graduated with the Class of 1988.


Lionel, Sven and Phil (RIP) - 1988




Lionel and Sven - Florida 2016

Sven relocated to the U.S., living in several different places over the years. He got married, had kids, got divorced, experienced plenty of setbacks and successes during his life. He eventually settled in Henderson, NV, where he worked as a dealer at one of the casinos in nearby Las Vegas. To hear his co-workers tell it, being a Blackjack dealer really suited Sven and he excelled at it.

Sven made many lifelong friends during his time at HH Arnold -friends who continued to stay in touch over the years. When Class of '88 gathered for their 20th year Reunion in 2008 in Austin, TX, Sven was there with bells on, reconnecting with a lot of old classmates and having the time of his life.


Ken Kimmel (RIP) and Sven.


James (RIP), Sven, Faithe, Jimmy, Angela - Austin, TX 2008


Roger and Sven


Sven and Jimmy - May 2018

In early 2018, Sven's old high school friends once again began to plan a reunion in Austin, TX and lots of folks were looking forward to seeing Sven again. But on the morning of June 14, 2018, Jimmy George '89 received a text message that brought all of that to a halt. The text was from Sven's roommate, alerting him to a report about a fatal car crash from the night before that he believed involved Sven.

There is no way to soften the jarring events that unfolded after that. Jimmy shared the text with several of us, I (Lindy) went and found the news report, which included footage from the crash scene, and brought it to our small group. It clearly showed the back end of a bright blue Nissan Versa that had been engulfed in flames and was utterly destroyed by impact. I headed straight to Sven's facebook page to dig through his pictures for clues.

My stomach dropped when I found what I was looking for. I don't think I'll ever be able to get this picture out of my head.


I knew I was about to confirm that Sven was no longer among us. With a heavy heart, I brought the picture back to our group chat, and we expressed our shock and grief and then agonized over what to do next. We realized that other than Sven's roommate, we were probably the only people who knew, before the police knew, before Sven's family knew. So we had to sit on it, while a few among us reached out to Sven's brother, Mike, and Sven's mom. It's hard to put into words how hard that day was.

In October 2018, a memorial gathering was held for friends and family of Sven. Jimmy George was in attendance. Sven is survived by his parents, his brothers, his daughters Lauren and Mia, and many extended family members.



Rest in Peace, Sven.

Sven W. Waclawski

1970-2018