Catharine P. Fels, née Catharine Phillips, painter, printmaker, and teacher, was born to Addison and Myrtle Randall Phillips in Kirksville, Missouri on 29 August 1912. She attended Ball State Teachers College in Muncie, Indiana and Maryville State Teachers College in North Dakota. Fels then attended the University of California Berkeley and finished her BFA at the University of Southern California where she also earned an MFA in printmaking in 1950. Fels joined the faculty of California State University Los Angeles in 1968 and became a full-time professor in 1970.

Catharine was married to Dr. Leonard A. Fels, associate professor of philosophy at California State University Long Beach, with whom she traveled the American Southwest and the Near East. He died in 1974 and after she retired in 1978, Fels moved to Taos, New Mexico.

She was a member of and exhibited with the San Francisco Society of Women Artists, New Orleans Art Association, and the Southern California Print Makers. Fels also helped establish chapters of Artists Equity in Los Angeles and Taos. Her work is represented in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana.

Catharine Phillips Fels died in Taos, New Mexico on 29 August 1991.