IN MEMORIAM
A Worthy Work... In Memory of Sybil Marie Novinski
Born: May 6, 1936
Passed: Oct. 31, 2025
Resided in Irving, TX
Funeral Arrangements:
A Rosary will be held on Sunday, Nov. 23, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Rita Catholic Church at 12521 Inwood Rd. Dallas, TX 75244
The Funeral Service will also be held at St. Rita on Monday, Nov. 24, at 12:30 pm, with a reception at St. Rita to follow.
Sybil Novinski, wife, mother, administrator, counselor, community volunteer and “mom away from home,” for so many, passed away in her sleep on Oct. 31. She was an incredible human being. Though she would expertly deflect the praise, well-wishers have described her as wise, gentle, iconic, a treasure, a blessing, direct, true, respected, revered, loving, one of the rarest gems, funny, encouraging, knowledgeable and challenging of others to be their best selves.
In active gratitude for many blessings, Sybil Novinski valued and created community and dispensed grace in all the chapters of her life. She was married to an artist, Lyle Novinski, and together they raised five children and a university.
“We just tried to be polite to each other along the way. What a joy and blessing it is to be able to have something you can build, with a difference you can make every day, to have a worthy work to which you can give yourself.”
She was “Sybil”, “mom”, “gramma”, “great-gramma”, “Mrs. N”. She was many things to many people.
Born in St. Joseph, Michigan to Marie and Maurice Weber, Sybil was very musical, with a remarkable singing voice that filled the house as she worked. She played the piano and later sang in the UD Choir. She graduated from St. Joseph Catholic High School and started at Marquette in the fall of 1954 on a pre-medical track. Later in her coursework, she confirmed her love of literature, and, even though already accepted to medical schools, she changed her major to literature and still graduated on time in 1958. After graduation, she moved to Chicago, taking a job in marketing research with the Gillette Corporation while starting part-time graduate work in educational psychology at the University of Chicago. The psychology classes and the business experience would serve Sybil well in her later administrative tasks and in her counseling of students.
Her younger brother, Michael, introduced her to Lyle Novinski, who was a visiting artist at Marquette. The two first bonded in their respective apartments while hosting gatherings of interesting people, a rhythm of social grace that would continue during their many years together. Soon after they married, they moved to the open spaces of Irving, Texas in 1960 to join Hungarian Cistercian refugees, the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur and a few lay people in the building of a Catholic Liberal Arts University. Sybil started and finished an M.A. in Literature at SMU in Dallas and then the family started. She defended her Master’s thesis just a few weeks after giving birth to Michael Raymond.
The University of Dallas was young, and the newlywed Novinskis began to immediately make an impact on the place. Gregory Lyle would be born in the summer of 1964. Sybil went from being a secretary in the art department to being the part-time director of the University Student Center while Lyle was teaching full time. In 1965, Sybil would move over to work in the admissions office.
Just before Gregory’s birth, the family moved into their current home on Owenwood in Irving. The home was a social center for thought and conversation among friends, faculty and students. It was a place of great parties and then of quiet coffees up to the day of her passing. The Novinskis committed to that place, enlarging and improving it over the years to accommodate their growing family, in parallel to their commitment to strengthening both the place and mission of the university.
While Lyle was focusing on surroundings (both interior and exterior, sacred and common) and teaching art history and painting, Sybil was focusing on the students, both directly in counseling them in their coursework and indirectly in her administrative tasks.
By 1970, she was the director of student programs, which included overseeing the coordination of students for the brand-new UD Rome Program. Meanwhile, Sybil Catherine, Stefan Paul and then David Bartholomew rounded out the family.
In 1973, Sybil became the registrar, a post she was to hold for many years. Countless students claim that just one meeting with “Mrs. N.” changed their lives. She had the gift of gleaning the true nature of a person and guiding them down that path, sometimes by creatively accepting academic credits or finding scholarships and grants but always by somehow gently challenging them to grow beyond their current expectations. She continued to serve the university as associate academic dean, associate provost, and finally, as the historian and archivist. In that role, she wrote the History of the First 50 Years of the University of Dallas with all the kindness and grace that had made her the soul of the institution for so long.
Sybil did not focus solely on the university. She was on the advisory council of the Thanksgiving Square Foundation in downtown Dallas and drew great satisfaction from her work there. She also committed time and resources to the history, heritage and art of her adopted city, Irving, Texas. She worked with the Irving Heritage Society and the Irving Archives and Museum. She was recognized along with her husband as a “high-spirited citizen” of Irving.
Her children remember her ability to make things fun: midnight Mass was coupled with an epic breakfast feast including waffles and ice cream while at Easter celebrations, eggs were dyed, hid and hunted. Cross-country car trips often featured her reading entire books aloud—such as Farmer Boy, The Hobbit and My Side of the Mountain—to everyone in the car. She made creating family memories look easy. Grandchildren (many of whom lived within walking distance) enjoyed summer pool time that magically included endless supplies of lemonade and pretzels for post-swim snacks and evening dinners waiting for them. The cookie jar was mysteriously filled and there was candy if you knew in which cupboard to look. Even far away, care packages found them ensuring they felt her love and care.
Family time was incredibly important to Sybil. The family always sat down for dinner. After church on Sunday, the kitchen table often accommodated a few extra members of the family whether by kinship or just her unwavering generosity. She included them in the meal and conversation, encouraging everyone to share a story about their week.
Sybil’s capacity to hold people in her heart was unmatched. Birthdays, anniversaries, or just about any life event would merit a “nice note,” handwritten up until email came along, but even in her last week, with a broken arm she managed to write and send a few. Even as she slowed down, the trail of visitors to her home did not, as the communities she had invested in circled through the house at Coffee Time, where all were welcomed to her grace and kindness and whatever treats were on the sideboard.
Sybil loved her family, singing with the Chapel of the Incarnation choir with her beloved Lyle, mystery novels and doing her crossword puzzles in pen. She will be much missed.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to the Sybil Novinski Scholarship at the University of Dallas, the Novinski Scholarship at Cistercian Preparatory School or the Irving Heritage Society.
Sybil is survived by her brother, Michael Weber (Nancy), her children, Michael (Lisa),
Gregory (Brenda), Sybil Sutton (Sean), Stefan (Donna) and David (Kristy), 18 grandchildren,
three great-granddaughters and one great-grandson. She was predeceased by her husband,
Lyle; her father, Maurice, and mother, Marie; as well as her brother, Reece, and sister,
Sheila.
To share a memory or a picture of Sybil with the family you can use this link:
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/12589636
