Emil Weiss was installed posthumously with his wife Tamar Ellis Weiss in 2016.
Emil ’53 P’80 and Tamar Ellis Weiss P’80 have been ardent supporters of the arts at Dickinson for more than four decades.
Emil earned a history degree at Dickinson and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. He went on to be a partner in the firm Neuberger and Berman before forming a personal investment firm, Weiss Pollack Capital Management, from which he retired as chair and partner in 1999. He and Tamar also raised two children: Jeffrey Weiss ’80, a curator at the Guggenheim Museum, and Diana Weiss Widman.
After Jeffrey’s graduation, the Weisses supported the renovation of the former Alumni Gymnasium into a dedicated space to learn, practice and present fine art and music; the Emil R. Weiss Center for the Arts was dedicated in 1983. They supported the establishment of the Emil R. and Tamar Weiss Prize for Creative Arts in 1986, fostering and recognizing exceptional student work. The Tamar and Emil R. Weiss ’53 Endowed Chair in Art and Art History was created in 2002, with Assistant Professor of Art Ren Wei appointed to the post in 2015.
Emil also was a member of the Board of Trustees for 32 years and a Trustee Emeritus for six years before his death in 2008. Tamar was part of the Friends of the Trout Gallery board for 10 years, and she is a member of Dickinson’s Old West Society.
