Weiss, Arthur J., 1894-1984

Dates

• Existence: 1894 - 1984

Biography

Arthur Josiah Weiss was born March 23, 1894, at West Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the son of Elmer P. Weiss and Ida A. Weierbach. Weiss lost his mother at age 9 and subsequently lived with an uncle and his family at Pleasant Valley, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He attended a small secondary school in Pleasant Valley and, seeking to broaden his horizons and opportunities, enrolled early in 1912 at Northwestern University’s Evanston Academy later reflecting, “I arrived in Evanston on a Sunday looking like a hayseed with about a hundred dollars.”

Weiss supported himself in Evanston through a variety of jobs. “I worked at various part time jobs at 35 cents an hour - washing windows, scrubbing floors, attending furnaces (there were no automatic oil burners nor gas burners then), removed ashes from cellars, washed bathrooms, etc. The Academy had a YMCA that had a good employment agency. Many Evanston people asked students for help. After drying dishes for several weeks for part of my board, I got a job at a girl’s boarding house, washing dishes for all of my board. I saw roaches here for the first time in my life. Several boy students waited on table - so that when one of the waiters wanted a turn off he asked me to wait on table. So I became a waiter part time and washed dishes afterwards.” He also worked as a waiter at a local tea room and as a clerk at Rosenberg’s grocery store in Evanston.

Weiss graduated from the Evanston Academy on June 8, 1914, and enrolled the following term at Northwestern University. He transferred to the University of California and, after interrupting his education to serve in the United States Naval Reserve for two years during World War I, graduated from Berkeley’s College of Mechanics in 1921 with a bachelor of science in engineering degree.

Weiss took employment as a mechanical engineer with Westinghouse, in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later accepted an engineering position with the Lowe Paper Company of Ridgefield, New Jersey.

Weiss married Janet Baldwin Blatchford, November 1, 1924, at Wyoming, New York. He died February 28, 1984, at Harrington Park, Bergen County, New Jersey, at the home of his daughter, Marilyn Jones, and grandson, Robin Jones.

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