Obituary of William P. Daley

Ceramic artist William Daley, died January 16, 2022, at his home in Elkins Park, PA. He was 96. His death was confirmed by family members. Daley was one of the last surviving members of the Post-World War II Studio Craft Movement, whose practitioners elevated crafts as art, experimenting with process and materials to fabricate work that often was not primarily conceived as functional, as well as to conceptualize often provocative design. Daley's large, unglazed stoneware vessels are in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Art and Design, N.Y., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia Museum of Art, Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, Alfred, N.Y., The Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, N.Y., The Mint Museum, Charlotte, N.C., The Stedelijk Museum's Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Daley's significant architectural commissions include the exterior Ceramic Module Wall at the Ritz Five Theater on Dock Street, Philadelphia; the Chancel Liturgical Reliefs at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, West Chester, PA; the Double Helix bronze at Germantown Friends School, Philadelphia; and Ceramic Wall at Arrow Industries, Reading, PA. Daley managed to combine a life as an arts educator with his studio arts, for 32 years teaching at the Philadelphia College of Art (now The University of the Arts), as well as conducting a series of ceramics workshops. His teaching practice was distinctively inspirational, referencing literature and philosophy, as well as art in all its aspects. William Patrick Daley was born in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY on March 7, 1925. His father, a house painter and avid lover of poetry and the arts, fostered Daley's creativity. After surviving prison camp during World War II, Daley attended and graduated from The Massachusetts College of Art in 1950, where he met and married Catherine Anne Stennes, of Belmont, MA, who preceded him in death. They were married for 70 years. He is survived by three children, Barbara (George d.), Charlotte, and Thomas (Donna), six grandchildren, Liam, Ezekiel, Andrew (Amanda), Catherine, Sara (Matthew), and Edward (Grace), and three great-grandchildren, Madeline, Nelson, and Gideon. Burial shall be private graveside service. Donations in William Daley's name may be made to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine. https://www.haystack-mtn.org/support