Rago Auctions

Rago is honored to present an exceptional collection of Nakashima furniture and other property from the estate of Dr. Julian Katz and Dr. Sheila Moriber Katz of Gladwyne, PA.

Julian and Sheila met at the University of Chicago where Julian was an intern and Sheila was a medical student and quickly fell in love—the pair were engaged just four weeks after their first date and remained married for 51 years until Julian’s death in 2014. They were both renowned and successful doctors in their respective medical fields and cherished teachers for generations of medical students, residents, and fellows.

Julian founded one of the largest private gastroenterology practices in Pennsylvania and performed early influential research on lactose intolerance. He would go on to become a Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and at Drexel University in addition to editing multiple medical textbooks and serving as president of the Philadelphia County Medical Society and the Pennsylvania Society of Gastroenterology.

Sheila was a celebrated pathologist and a pioneering force for women in medicine. With her expertise in pathology and electron microscopy, she was the first person to identify the cause of Legionnaire’s disease, and her research and contributions were instrumental in our understanding of the illness. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, she served a variety of important roles at the Hahnemann University School of Medicine (where she made her breakthrough discovery) including Professor, Vice Provost, Dean of the Medical School, and co-founder of their School of Public Health. She also earned her MBA in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1990 and founded her own company.

Outside of their professional careers, Julian and Sheila were happiest when they were together and spending time with their two children and six beloved grandchildren. They held a deep appreciation for art and other creative pursuits (Sheila, in addition to her myriad professional accomplishments, was a published poet); in fact, in 1986, when describing scientific research, Sheila remarked: “The actual act of performing science is awesome, and the way to describe that is through a metaphor. You can’t describe it…entirely through data and numbers. And that’s where artists who are scientists can make breakthroughs in human thought.”

It is only fitting, then, that Julian and Sheila acquired furniture from George Nakashima, a trained architect with a fertile creative mind and an eye for beauty and form, with whom they established a personal relationship over the years.