December 17, 1959
To Members of the Faculty
Bertha L. Patt, 91, Professor Emeritus at Iowa State Teachers College since 1938, died at 12:05 a.m. Thursday, December 17, 1959, at the Lutheran Home in Cedar Falls. She had been ill for some time.
Miss Patt began her 53 years of service at the college in 1895, when it was still known as the Iowa State Normal School. She held the position of professor of art and manual arts, and continued part-time teaching until 1948.
Born in Tiskilwa, Illinois, July 10, 1868, she attended high school and normal school in Dexter, Iowa, and studied art at the Des Moines Academy of Art, the Art Students League of New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago. She taught art in the public school in Nevada in 1888, at Decorah in 1890, and was Supervisor of Art in Butte, Montana, in 1892. She was a member of the Iowa State Teachers Association, the National Education Association, the College Art Association, the Western Arts Association, the International Federation for Art Education, and the American Federation of Arts. When Miss Patt joined the staff in 1895 the Iowa State Normal School had a faculty of thirty-eight instructors, and only four buildings to house its eight hundred students. Miss Patt received the Iowa State Teachers College Alumni Service Award in June 1958. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 o'clock Saturday morning at Dahl's Funeral Home in Cedar Falls.
Sincerely yours,
J. W. Maucker
President
Bertha Patt, 91, Former ISTC Staff Member, Dies Today
Bertha Patt, 91, for 50 years on the art staff at Iowa State Teachers College, died at 12:05 a. m. today at the Lutheran Home where she had been a resident since June 23. She was born July 10, 1868, at Tiskilwa, Illinois, to Mr. and Mrs. Alfred L. Patt. Miss Patt came to Cedar Falls in 1895 when Teachers College was still the State Normal School. She had previously taught in public schools in Nevada, Decorah, and Butte, Montana. She attended a normal school at Dexter, the Des Moines Academy of Art, the Art Student League of New York City, and the Art Institute in Chicago. In 1912 she traveled in Europe, studying art. She took emeritus status at the college in 1938 and lived alone in an apartment at 2209 1/2 Walnut until this spring. She was a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. She has no survivors. Funeral services will be Saturday, 10 a. m. at the Dahl Funeral home. Burial will be at the Masonic Cemetery in Des Moines. Rev. William Bagby will officiate.
Copyright Cedar Falls Daily Record, December 17, 1959.
Senate Minutes
February 29, 1960
Docket No. 676 2.
David Delafield presented the following resolution to the Senate
A Resolution Honoring Miss Bertha Patt When Bertha Patt first came to Cedar Falls, it was to the campus of Iowa State Normal School. The year was 1895. She came as an Instructor in Art to join a teaching staff of thirty-eight instructors, and to begin fifty-three years of service to students at this institution. Her record says in essence that when she was not teaching, she was learning. Her very extended period of service began, and indeed ended, too long ago for many of us to recall much of it, but there are many scattered evidences remaining of her devotion to teaching and to people, evidences of an open heart and a delicate hand. Among Miss Patt's greatest interests were religious art and oriental arts. The art forms she was especially fond of, Japanese painting, prints and stencils, reflect some of her own attributes: a quiet searching quality, a gentle and delicate sensitivity, a light and quick surface achieved through persistent contemplation and study, and a precision and clarity of concept arrived at through totally human and non-mechanical means. The impression carried away was always one of pleasure and satisfaction in the encounter.
Be it resolved that we honor the memory of Miss Patt, and that this resolution be placed on the records of this body.
Jvonne Maxwell Clayton Fowler David Delafield L. Wagner moved that the resolution be adopted and made a part of the permanent minutes of the Senate. Dieterich seconded. Motion carried.