Bela Petheo

A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial celebrating the life of Bela Petheo, 82, of St. Cloud will be at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, May 19, 2017 at St. John the Baptist Abbey Church in Collegeville. Bela passed away peacefully with family by his side on Wednesday, May 3, at Quiet Oaks Hospice House in St. Augusta. Inurnment will take place in the parish cemetery.
Visitation will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Friday at the Abbey Church. Arrangements are with Daniel Funeral Home, St. Cloud.
Bela Petheo was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1934, where he graduated from Rakoczi Ferenc Gimnazium and from ELTE University of Budapest with a Master’s Degree in Art History. He worked for a Ph.D. under Andrew Pigler in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest while taking private lessons from the well-known Hungarian painter, Paul Molnar-C. After the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, he escaped to Vienna, Austria where he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 1959, he immigrated to the USA. Shortly thereafter, he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, a part-time illustrator and an artist. He graduated from the University of Chicago with his MFA. In 1964, he was appointed as an instructor to the University of Iowa, Cedar Falls. In 1966, he was hired as an assistant professor by St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN from where he retired Professor Emeritus in 1997. He devoted his last years to painting and teaching. As a painter educator and art historian, his contributions received due recognition by inclusion in both public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and extensive literature, including Who’s Who in American Art and Bela Petheo: Painter of the Center in an Age of Extremes by J. Gray Sweeney (1985).
Bela was a member of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in St. Cloud, the St. Cloud Rotary Club since 1992, and a Harris Fellow. Select honors and awards include: Fellowship with the Camargo Foundation, the Paramount Lifetime Achievement Award and numerous teaching honors from St. John’s University.
Survivors include his wife, Kathleen Petheo, two daughters and their spouses, Kristine (Petheo) Schwientek and Jerry Schwientek and Elizabeth Petheo and Andrew Kent and three grandchildren, Nicholas Schwientek, Sophia Schwientek, and Max Bela Kent.
The family wishes to send their heartfelt thanks for the tremendous outpouring of love and support. Memorials are preferred to the St. John’s Abbey and to the Quiet Oaks Hospice House.