Ephrum Philip Weiss

Ephrum Philip Weiss was born in 1924 in Montréal where he resided until 1953. He attended the Ontario College of Fine Arts in Toronto. Studying under Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Carl Shaeffer, John Alfin and George Pepper, Philip Weiss received a Diploma of Art and Design. In 1943 he participated in an exhibition entitled Tribute to the People of Leningrad at the Toronto Art Gallery. During the same time period Philip Weiss became a member of the Canadian Army serving overseas in the Army Intelligence Corps from 1943 to 1946. After his time in the army, Mr. Weiss once again utilized his arts training. He taught a 1952/53 spring course at Carleton College entitled Figure and Landscape Painting. Working in the Public Service occupied almost thirty years of Philip Weiss' life. In 1947 he began working as an Exhibition Designer and Project Manager for the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission. By 1961, Weiss would be Assistant Director of the National Design Branch of the Department of Trade and Commerce. In 1965, he would become the General Director of the Office of Design, Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce. This job would last five years. Then in 1970, Mr. Weiss would become the Secretary General of the National Design Council Secretariat. While working in the Public Service, Philip Weiss was also busy designing stamps for the Post Office Department. He is responsible for designing nine stamp images. Favouring simple designs he designed stamps for the North Atlantic Treaty (1959), Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1959), 300th Anniversary of Dollard des Ormeaux (1960), and Jean Talon (1962). He also designed stamps for the Sir Casimir Gzowski (1963), Sir Martin Frobisher (1963), Quebec Conference (1964), Charlottetown Conference (1964), and Winston Churchill (1965) stamps. For his stamp design of Dollard des Ormeaux, he received international recognition for the World's Best Stamp in 1960.