User:Tmccallum98/sandbox

Life[edit]
Born in Stevensville, Montana on January 4, 1906. Catich's parents died when he was 11, and he and three brothers (including his twin) were taken by train to the orphanage of the Loyal Order of Moose, the Mooseheart campus near Aurora, Illinois, where Catich begins his sign-writing apprenticeship under Walter Heberling. After graduating high school in 1924, Catich toured with a Mooseheart band, and then went to Chicago, where he played music in bands. Catich studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1926-29, and supported himself as a union sign-writer. While in Chicago, Catich became heavily influenced by Ernst F. Detterer, a famous calligrapher. In the later years of the 20's Catich looked for the advice of Ray DaBoll on how he could improve his work. In 1931 Catich moved to Davenport, Iowa and attended St. Ambrose College, financing his education by directing the college band. He went on to receive a master's degree in art at University of Iowa in Iowa City In 1935.

In 1935, Catich traveled to Rome to study at Pontifical Gregorian University for the Catholic priesthood, where he also made a study of archaeology and paleography. He was ordained in 1938 and returned to Iowa to teach art, math, engineering, and music at St. Ambrose. Although his main focus was starting an art program at St. Ambrose. As a priest, he served in parishes of the Diocese of Peoria, including ones in Atkinson and Hooppole.

Throughout much of the late 40's and early 50's, Catich found himself making trips to Massachusetts to work on his calligraphy with W.A. Dwiggins. It was during these trips that he began to explore deep into the Trajan column that would become his life's work. During the 50's, 60's, and even into the 70's, Catich would make many trips to Rome to explore the Roman capitals.

Catich taught at St. Ambrose for forty years, until his death in 1979. The Davenport, Iowa, university now holds some 4,000 of his works, many from his legacy to Professor John Schmits, housed at the Edward M. Catich Memorial Gallery. The gallery was originally his studio and press at the Galvin Fine Arts Center and was built with a donation from Hallmark Cards, where several of his students worked. In the years following his death, many of Catich's theories about

He had ties to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Houghton Library at Harvard, and was a founder of the Catholic Art Association.