Freny Kolbe

Freny Kolbe was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on September 14th, 1939 and was the daughter of the late Evangelos D. and Lefkothea (Vasiadis) Gatzios. She completed her academic process at The School of The Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts and as a graduate student at Yale University Art School in New Haven, Connecticut. Freny earned her Massachusetts teaching credits at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts and has been a teacher of art while participating in group exhibits at The Worcester Art Museum, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y. In a fourteen-year dedication living in Arabia, Freny managed to balance her work as a journalist for a British press while pursuing her painting career. During this period, her work was represented in prominent galleries of the region and gained a following in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and several Arabian States, and her watercolors are in the private collection of the Royal Family of The Sultanate of Oman. While settled in Waldoboro, Maine, Freny continued to focus on her work and establishing contact with the wide community of artists and galleries in the area. Freny was a staunch civil rights activist. From walking out of her job to marching down Fifth Avenue in New York for the Women's Strike for Equality in 1970 to adopting her daughter from Sài Gòn during the Vi t Nam War in 1972, she always fought for humanity and tirelessly put others before herself. While accomplishing so much, Freny also found time to be a loving mother, avid gardener, and an at-home chef. She is survived by her daughter, Anh Ðào Kolbe of Fayetteville, Arkansas, her niece Lynne Petty of Newburyport, Massachusetts, her nephews, Michael Gatzios of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Max Nuti of East Hampton, New York. Freny is loved beyond words and will be missed beyond measure by her family and friends.