Obituary of Daniel Mark Schulte-Sasse

Finance expert, musician, biking aficionado, polymath and bon vivant. Daniel was all these things, yet what most remember are his seeming contradictions: He wielded a gallows humor and razor-sharp wit yet was deeply empathetic. He was stoic and disliked the limelight, yet charismatic, a connector of people who loved conversing on the absurdities of life. He was fiercely loyal, reassuring, ready to help, understand, or guide, yet infuriatingly reliable when it came to pointing out your misstep, never passing up the chance to lovingly mock or throw a sarcastic jab. His soft-spoken voice and deadpan delivery ensured that his playful barb would land.

Daniel died unexpectedly on March 11 at age 42, leaving behind his mother Linda Schiele Schulte-Sasse, sister Linn Schulte-Sasse, nephews Xander and Dresden, and partner Clare Andre; he was preceded in death by his father Jochen Schulte-Sasse. He graduated from Southwest High School with an International Baccalaureate degree in 2000, and from Grinnell College in 2004 with majors in Computer Science and Philosophy. Though he grew up in Minneapolis and studied in the cornfields, his focus was markedly international. As a small child visiting his German grandparents he was traumatized by a world where a strange language was spoken (insisting “I’m Eng-a-lish”), but it’s safe to say he adapted, going on to study at the University of Freiburg, to wait tables in New Zealand, to get lost in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, to wine-taste in Piemonte, and to render Mexican vacations dirt-cheap by forcing friends to sit through an occasional timeshare pitch.

Daniel’s eclectic interests (or perhaps his resistance to a humanities-obsessed family) led him in 2011 to complete a joint J.D.-Business Administration degree at the University of Minnesota and Carlson School, after which he pursued private finance in Minneapolis. A life-long animal-lover and cyclist, he holds the record for hair-raising bike smash-ups but was never deterred. Likely his greatest passion was for music. In 2013 he and friends founded Wastrels, a post-punk psychedelic band from Minneapolis, in which he was the front man, composer and lyricist. He was a self-taught guitarist, considered by his peers the most gifted they’ve known. As a bandmate puts it, “he shaped our sound, steered our ideas forward, and took us to musically exciting destinations. To have heard him play was a privilege, but to have stood beside him, to have shared knowing glances, nods, and smiles while locked into that indescribable sonic consciousness – was beyond special. We shared in the noise, the joy, and the chaos.”

Years ago in his “terrible twos,” enchanted by the best neighborhood Christmas lights, Daniel might demand that he see a decorated house again, not meaning that we drive by a second time, but that time itself should turn back so he could see the house again for the first time. What we remember as a toddler’s foible now captures the equally futile wish of those who love Daniel: that we could make his loss un-happen. What we can do is keep him alive by emulating his spirit of compassion and community, his irreverent scrutiny of our world, and his pleasure in both the joy and the chaos. He might make a little fun of us, but he wouldn’t disapprove.

A celebration of Daniel’s life will be held at 2:00 PM on May 3, 2025 at the Macalester College chapel; reception to follow. If you wish to honor Daniel, you may make a donation to the Animal Humane Society www.animalhumanesociety.org, but for sure you should give Wastrels a listen.