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| Max Weismann |
It is with deep
regret that we learned recently of the death in Chicago of Max Weismann, who
served on the Board of Counselors for the Center for Economic and Social
Justice (CESJ), allegedly of an undiagnosed kidney ailment. Max, an American philosopher and a long-time
friend and associate of Mortimer J. Adler (co-author with Louis O. Kelso of The Capitalist Manifesto, 1958, and The New Capitalists, 1961), co-founded
the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas in Chicago with Adler in 1990.
Max was director
and president of the Center, and devoted his life to promoting Adler’s ideas,
especially as found in the study of the “Great Books.” He also compiled, edited, and published How
to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization
(2000), a 600-page collection of previously unpublished pieces derived from
Alder’s television series, The Great
Ideas. Max was also chairman of the
Great Books Academy, with more than three thousand students, and was a Fellow
at the Adler-Aquinas Institute.
Prior to his
association with Adler, which focused on philosophy and education, Max was a consultant
in the fields of architecture, construction management, and exhibit design and
fabrication. He worked on famous projects like the Century 21 Exposition, 1964
New York World's Fair and Expo 67, with such notables as Dr. Athelstan Spilhaus,
Walt Disney, Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Mies van der Rohe, Louis
I. Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breur, José Luis Sert, Edward Durell Stone, Minoru
Yamasaki, Harry Weese, Moshe Safdie, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Alexander Calder,
and Edward Larrabee Barnes. Max also
oversaw the development and construction of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Max also
invented a revolutionary color imaging system, that was used worldwide in the
fields of color proofing and printing, graphic design, television and
advertising.
Max’s interest
in education was highlighted by his interest in the “Justice University”
concept developed by CESJ.
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