Funeral Details

Claude M. Weil

July 2, 1931 - September 11, 2024

SERVICE INFORMATION

Date and Time

Monday, September 16, 2024 at 12 Noon

Service

Chicago Jewish Funerals
Skokie Chapel
8851 Skokie Boulevard
Skokie, Illinois 60077
Get Directions

Clergy

Rabbi Jeffrey Weill

Interment - Private

Shiva

Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel
8851 Skokie Blvd
Skokie, Illinois 60077
847.229.8822
Get Directions
Following the service until 4PM

Memorial Contributions

Lyric Opera of Chicago
20 North Wacker Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60606
www.lyricopera.org
or
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
220 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60604
cso.org
or
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60603
www.artic.edu





OBITUARY

Claude M. Weil, age 93, died in Chicago, Illinois, on September 11th. Beloved son of the late Herbert and Elly Weil (nee Weiss). Dear brother-in-law of Haydeh Weil. Loving uncle of Elika (Dr. James) Shapiro and Tanya Weil and great uncle of Naomi (Mark) Saunderson, Sarah Shapiro, Matthew (Chanel) Shapiro, Rachel (Mark) Schoenhofer, great-great uncle of Charlotte and Ellie.
Born near Hamburg, Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1940. He was a resident of Chicago and Hyde Park for more than 55 years. He graduated from the Ray School, Hyde Park High School, Wilson Junior College and pursued graduate studies in the social sciences at the University of Chicago. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he returned to and was employed at the University in a variety of administrative and managerial capacities primarily at the Center for Continuing Education and International House. While at the University he served several years as President of the Staff Credit Union Board of Directors. He retired in 1996.
A passionate lover of opera and classical music, he served on Lyric Opera’s Chapters Executive Board, the Operathon Organizing Committee and on the Board of the Wagner Society of America.
Mr. Weil’s interests were varied: his worldwide travels took him to such exotic places as Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Petra, Pagan, Monte Alban, the Victoria and Iguazu Falls. He visited all fifty states and more than sixty countries. He enjoyed playing bridge, listening to music, photography, gourmet cooking, motorcycling and hiking. He collected art and handicrafts, particularly by the Inuit and Native Americans. He served for years on the Board of the Inuit Art Society. He read widely, primarily literature, history and biography. He greatly loved Chicago, and as a younger man, regularly walked from his home in Hyde Park along the lake to Downtown and beyond.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606, www.lyricopera.org, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 220 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60604, cso.org, or The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60603, www.artic.edu. Service Monday, 12:00 Noon at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd., (at Niles Center Road) Skokie. Private interment at Westlawn. To attend the funeral livestream, please visit our website. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com.


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Claude will be truly missed, not only at the bridge clubs in Chicago but at the Brookdale Senior Independent Living housing

Eileen Tardy
September 12, 2024
I met Claude numerous times at Shapiro family gatherings. He was a dear uncle to Elika and much loved by her. What an interesting and full life he led.

Leslie Konek-Schlax
September 13, 2024
We knew Claude through his membership for more than twenty years in the Inuit Art Society. An enthusiast of Inuit art, he built an impressive collection of carvings and prints, the majority of which he has contributed to the Kenosha Public Museum in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We were fortunate to view Claude's collection on several occasions, and we always enjoyed his stories of how each piece had been acquired and why he thought it was notable.

Claude served on the Board of the Art Society for a number of years, and helped to arrange meetings of the Inuit Art Society in Skokie and later in Kenosha. Many of the members were happy to call Claude their friend. He will be missed.

Kik and Si Gilman
September 14, 2024
I admired Claud's carrying on in spite of frailty. We spoke at the Clare duplicate bridge game just 4 days before he died. Sincere condolences to his family and bridge friends.

Abigail Nichols
September 14, 2024
I first met Claude when i came home from school one afternoon in the 70s and he was sitting in my dad’s armchair so i understood he was an important guest. “This is my cousin Cluade” my dad told me. He was a kind man who had time for listening to children. Later in life we became friends and visited each other in Rome and Chicago. He also had a passion for train travel and once my wife and i met him off a train from Zagreb, he stayed with us a few days and then I took him to’ Civitavecchia to board a ferry to Cagliari from whence he travelled by train through Sardinia and Corsica to board another ferry in Isle Rousse to Toulon and on from there by train. He was already in his late 80s. In civitavecchia we ate a platter of crabs, prawns and crayfish which he devoured toothless, he had broken his dentures somewhere in the Balkans.

Stephen Weiss
September 15, 2024
Elika and family, so sorry for your loss. We send you our prayers for comfort. Claude had such a wonderful life. We hope your memories bring you comfort.
Love Kim and Mark

Kim Mickelson
September 15, 2024
Claude was a long-time member of the Chicago based Wagner Society of America. He served for some years as Vice-President and then as a board member at large. In addition to the interests listed above he had a stamp collection. He also told me about the family's escape from Germany via Italy and then France. Their ship across the Atlantic Ocean in 1940 was the very last one to make it. We are all very happy that it did.

WILLIAM SMITH
September 15, 2024
With the departure of Claude I (Ezra) lost my last cousin, who was our most favorable one. Claude, despite being single, was a devoted family person by keeping connections with all his overseas relatives. These included his Israeli family first with my late parents, who were smart to leave Germany to Palestine in 1933, then with my late elder brother Gad who was Claude’s age and then with us, five years younger. We exchanged visits a few times and owing to Claude’s broad knowledge in many subjects it was always extremely interesting to converse with him. Among other countries that he visited, he was extremely interested and knowledgeable in Israeli history, archeology, landscape and politics. Claude was also an unusual kind host. My first visit with him was in the 60’s in his Hyde Park apartment and later several visits (last on in 2017) both of us stayed in his large-windowed apartment in a house designed by the famous Mies van de Rohe, located close to the lake on Diversey Parkway. Having a small guestroom Claude always insisted that we stay in his bedroom while he moved to the guestroom. His apartment was beautifully decorated with tasteful original art and sculptures dominated by his favorable Inuit art. There was never a dull moment during our visits as Claude carefully planned them for us. These included Chicago’s famous museums, boat tours, Michigan Avenue’s beautiful spots including the Millennium Park, in one case with a temporary sculpture of Marilyn Monroe. One of the most exciting visits was a spring visit to the botanical gardens north of Chicago, about halfway to Kenosha, and the list of other places is still long.
Claude was an excellent cook, despite suffering hand tremors (a genetic family defect) he insisted that to we dine with him. On the weekend he used to take us to his favorite Swedish Pancake House sometimes with his late nephew Steve who lived close to him in the same house. 13 years ago we attended Claude’s 80th birthday, organized by his niece Elika Shapiro that included a concert with Izhak Perlman. Between our rare mutual visits we used the exchange periodical emails, his last one was on September 7, 2024, analyzing the current local “inane self-serving warfare” (his words), my response four days later on Sept. 11 arrived too late.
Sad to both of us having lost such a kind, interesting, knowledgeable cousin and close friend whom we shall miss a lot.

Ezra and Ahuva Yagil, Ramat Hasharon, ISRAEL
September 16, 2024