Funeral Details

Catherine Cecelia Bock-Weiss



1931-2024


Catherine Bock-Weiss, age 92, passed away peacefully on June 26, 2024, at The Merion, a senior residence in Evanston, Illinois. Catherine was born in Chicago to Marguerite and Frank Bock, the fourth of their eight children, and grew up in the Portage Park neighborhood. She is the fond sister of Rosemary (William) Sturdevant, Florence (John) Ryan, and Fr. David (Richard) Bock, OCSO. She is preceded in death by her husband Raymond Lincoln Weiss, her brother Robert, and sisters Marguerite (John) Deger, Frances, and Sr. Dorothy, SSSF.

She received a BA from Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her MFA from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She entered The School Sisters of St. Francis with the name Sister Paul Marie. She taught painting and design at Alverno College for twelve years. After leaving the Order, she earned a PhD in Art History at The University of California Los Angeles. She taught Modern Art History at The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois, and The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she met her late husband Raymond Weiss.

During her tenure at the School of the Art Institute, she was instrumental in establishing the MA program called “Art History, Theory, and Criticism,” the first of the many MA programs that followed. Her classes included the arts of film, dance, and avant-garde literature as these shaped modernist culture. These interests were reflected in her last book, Henri Matisse, Modernist Against the Grain (2010). Her annotated bibliography, Henri Matisse, A Guide to Research (1996), remains a fundamental tool for Matisse scholarship the world over.

Catherine enjoyed a happy marriage of forty-five years to Raymond Weiss and a long and loving relationship with her many nieces and nephews. Her family prized her kindness, her ready wit, her empathetic response to others, and her gifts of attention and respect. Her presence was a blessing while she lived and her memory will continue as a blessing to her family and friends.

Service Friday 12 noon at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd. (at Niles Center Road) Skokie. Interment Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Office of Advancement,116 South Michigan Avenue, 5th floor, Chicago, IL 60603, www.saic.edu/support-saic/ways-give. To attend the funeral live stream, please visit our website. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com