Merrie Cutts was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin on July 30, 1936. She received an undergraduate degree in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Merrie has taught in the public schools in Madison and in the Chicago suburbs at New Trier and Evanston High Schools. Since 1967 Merrie has taught painting at Northwestern Illinois University, where she was also on the Womens Studies faculty. For several years she coordinated the Universitys North River Cimmunity Gallery. In 1978, she developed a womens Artist-In-Residence program, for which she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has curated art exibits in Mundelein College, the YWCA and Loyola University. Since 1980, Merrie Cutts painted for a part of each year at Big Sur. Her work has been shown in group amd solo exibits in Chicago and group exibits in California. Merrie will be sorely missed by her dear friend Ranka Gajic of Chicago, Dr. Lange of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, her students and by all who knew her. Interment at the Restlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.