Deaths: Louis Berman

Louis Berman, professor emeritus of psychology, died June 23. He was 96.

Berman, who taught at UIC from 1957 until his retirement in 1989, donated a rare book in 2017 to UIC’s Richard J. Daley Library, where it is housed in Special Collections and University Archives.

As a young graduate student in the 1950s, he found the rare art history book in the basement of a library book sale.

The 1568 edition of Giorgio Vasarti’s “Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a’ tempi nostri” (“Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects from Cimabue to Our Times”), chronicles the lives of famous Italian Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci.

“I realized this was a treasure and that one day I would have to find a home for it,” he said when he donated the book in 2017. “I have a special place in my heart for the University of Illinois at Chicago because I was on the faculty when it was just an undergraduate university and I saw it grow.”

Valerie Ann Harris, associate professor and associate special collections librarian, said the library is indebted to Berman for his “incredibly generous” gift.

He is survived by son Daniel (Anny) Berman and daughter Jennifer (Matt Minde) Berman; grandchildren Joseph and Eliza Minde-Berman; sister Marian Kohlenberg; and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. He was preceded in death by his former wives, Irene Katzel Berman and Helga Kauf-Berman.

Services will be held at 6 p.m. July 25 at the Jewish SelfHelp Home, 908 W. Argyle St., Chicago, IL 60640. In lieu of flowers, a donation is encouraged to a charity supporting social justice.