Our friend and colleague Patrick Krolak was never one to accept the status quo. During Pat’s 17-year tenure at Marquette Associates, his passion was instrumental in helping to drive our growth from a firm of six to 45 employees. He worked tirelessly with his union and public fund clients to develop new ways to improve the stewardship of resources needed to provide retirement security for their members.

Pat joined Marquette as an analyst in 1995. Through hard work and dedication, he advanced to become an investment consultant and helped to establish Marquette’s police and fire fund center of expertise. In order to reward his contributions, Pat was offered equity in the firm in 2000. Over the years, he became the third largest owner of Marquette.

As an early employee of the firm, Pat was a major contributor on the team that helped to develop Marquette’s research, technology and processes – from market environment reports to asset allocation and investment manager search. Pat served as an active member of our investment committee as well the Investment Task Force for the Advisory Committee to the Pension Division of the State of Illinois.

Outside of Marquette, Pat was a husband and father of two with many unique interests. He spent time growing multiple rose flower species and researching his family history. His desire to challenge himself and focus on learning was a big part of his personality — one he inherited from his parents and shared with us.

Pat received a B.A. with honors in physics from the University of Chicago. He began his career as a research assistant in high-energy physics at Fermi Lab, Argonne National Lab and CERN.

Our loss has brought us closer together than ever and put Marquette’s investment stewardship mission into greater perspective. Pat’s passion for Marquette will be sorely missed, but more importantly we will miss his humor and friendship.

Marquette Associates Grieves the Sudden Passing of Partner, Friend Patrick Krolak