Obituary for Sr. Jean Michael Treba, FSPA

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Sister Jean Michael Treba, 83, died Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, at St. Rose Convent. She was in the fifty-ninth year of her religious profession. Patricia Marie Treba, born on Oct. 26, 1942, in Ashland, Wisconsin, was the youngest of 15 children to Charles and Helen (Biesik) Treba. Her father died in an accident four months before she was born. She was raised by her mother and her older brother Chester, who had just returned from military service. She attended Holy Family Grade School and De Padua High School in Ashland. During summer vacations, she babysat and picked berries on nearby farms. After graduation, she worked as a guide at the Wisconsin State Fair and then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to live with her sister while searching for employment. While there, Patricia took classes in calculus, astrology, anthropology and chemistry at local institutions. She worked as a typist for Woolworth Company, a verifier for Hartford Fire Insurance Company and a Class A-insulator at Allen-Bradley Company. In August 1963, she quit her job and followed a call she had felt for years — to become a religious sister. That September, she entered St. Rose Convent.

Patricia was received into the novitiate in 1964 and given the name Sister Jean Michael. She began her ministry teaching mathematics in upper grades in Wisconsin at Colby, Stanley and Wausau. From 1968 through 1970, she also served as principal of the schools in Stanley and Wausau. Sister Jean Michael ministered as an assistant group mother at St. Michael’s Orphanage in La Crosse from 1970 to 1972. She continued her education, which opened up a variety of ministry opportunities. She received a bachelor’s degree in sociology, with minors in math and psychology, from Viterbo College in La Crosse. Subsequently, she went on to receive a Master of Science in Education in school psychology and counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She served as a school psychologist and counselor in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, before ministering as a teacher and school counselor at Bishop Baumgartner Junior High School in Guam for three years.

When she returned to Wisconsin, she continued as a teacher and school counselor in Superior and Thorp until 1984. She served as counselor, teacher and librarian at Sacred Heart Elementary School — a mission school for African American students — in Camden, Mississippi, from 1984 to 1991. At that time, she was appointed Director of Temporary Professed Sisters for the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. During her time as director, she also taught part-time at St. Luke School in Plain, Wisconsin. In 1998, Sister Jean Michael was elected as Mission Councilor for the FSPA for two terms. From 2008 to 2012, she served as administrator at Villa St. Joseph, the community’s retirement home on St. Joseph Ridge, east of La Crosse. For the next four years, Sister Jean Michael served as a volunteer for various charitable groups in the La Crosse area. In 2016, she moved to St. John, Kansas, where she and her companion, Sister Paulynn Instenes, served as a religious presence, doing various church ministries at St. John Parish and throughout the area. In 2018, she represented the Catholic community there on the Ministerial Alliance, which is a group of pastors of different denominations from the St. John area. After a valiant fight with cancer and heart problems, Sister Jean Michael moved to St. Rose Convent in the fall of 2023.

Community members, family and friends remember Sister Jean Michael as a steadfast person who always had a heart for others. Her quiet openness provided an environment of attentive listening for both children and adults. She delighted in ministering to the marginalized wherever she found them. She loved to read and was continually searching to find more ways to “bring forth the Gospel.” During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she couldn’t be as active in her ministry at St. John’s, she read to help herself better understand white privilege and racial discrimination. Sister Jean Michael was an adventurer. She loved to travel — especially to any place that had water. She would swim, snorkel and deep-sea dive whenever she could. She was an avid Green Bay Packers fan — even while living in Kansas, and she loved her family and took every opportunity possible to visit them.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m., Thursday, December 11, 2025, at St. Rose Convent, 701 Franciscan Way, La Crosse, WI. Burial will follow in Gate of Heaven Catholic Cemetery (on County Highway B) in La Crosse. A visitation will be held from 9:00 a.m., until the time of Mass, Thursday, at the convent.

A recitation of the Rosary, visitation, and time of sharing will be held, begining at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 10, 2025, at the convent.