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Founder
and former chairperson of the St. Ambrose University Art
Department, Fr. Edward Catich was well known as an author,
stone-cutter, calligrapher, photographer, musician, liturgical
artist, historian and lecturer.
Born
in Stevensville, Montana, and reared in Butte, he was orphaned
at an early age and, with his three brothers, was relocated to
Illinois. Following a sign-writing apprenticeship under Walter
Heberling in an Illinois orphanage, he worked as a union
sign-writer in Chicago, where he also attended the Chicago Art
Institute for three-and-a-half years. After receiving a graduate degree
from the University of Iowa, he went to Rome. During four
years (1935-1939) of intensive paleographic and epigraphic
research, he saw and formulated the kinesthetic linkage
between the inscription letter-making of Imperial Rome and his
own familiar Chicago sign writing.
He
was staff consultant for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
calligraphic consultant for Encyclopedia Britannica (he
designed EB's corporate identity symbol and bi-centennial
medal) and acted as consultant for several nationally known
architectural firms.
His
alphabet stones are in permanent collections of seven museums.
His reputation as a stone cutter, calligrapher, liturgical
artist and craftsman commands the highest respect in the
United States and abroad. Examples of his lettering work in
stone have been exhibited in institutions throughout the
country and are a permanent part of the collection at
Encyclopedia Britannica's corporate headquarters, the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, Reed College, Morton Arboretum
and Harvard College. |
