Dr. ELISABETH BARTHOLDI WOLFF COLLINS
May 9, 2021
Dr. Elisabeth Bartholdi Wolff Collins was born May 12, 1921 in Baerwalde, Germany to Walter and Elisabeth Hackbarth Bartholdi. After her mothers death in 1933 she was sent to boarding school at Lindau, Bavaria, Germany. After boarding school she attended Roeckert High School in Berlin and then studied medicine at Universities in Freiburg, Danzig, and Prague. She finished medical school in Hamburg in 1945 and began an internship in East Berlin where she met and married Dr. Walter Wolff in 1947. In 1953 she left East Germany with her husband and moved to Tuebingen, West Germany where she began a residency in adult and child psychiatry at the University of Tuebingen. Dr. Walter Wolf died in 1957. After completing her residency she moved to Switzerland to take a position as Medical Director at Gotthelfhaus, in Solothurn, Switzerland. At Tuebingen she met Dr. Dean Collins, who was studying there on an Alexander Von Humboldt scholarship. They were married May 16, 1959 in Junction City, Kansas. Elisabeth was his loving and beloved wife for forty five years and they shared an interest in music, theater, the opera, and travel. Dr. Dean Collins died August 6, 2004. After moving to the United States in 1959 Elisabeth worked as a staff psychiatrist at Topeka State Hospital, at the Winfield State Hospital, at Kansas Neurological Hospital and at the Kansas Reception and Diagnostic Center. After receiving her Kansas Medical License and further study at the Menninger School of Psychiatry, she opened a private practice in Topeka, Kansas. She was a member of the Topeka Medical Society, Kansas Psychiatric Society and the American Psychiatric Society. She retired in 1988. With the help of her attorney and friend, Hurst Coffman, Elisabeth was able to arrange in home care as needed through the end of her life. Dr. Elizabeth Collins died October 2, 2011. She was survived by her brother-in-law Dale Collins, two nieces Cheryl Collins (G.W. Clift) and Jayne Rudd (Mike) and one nephew, Larry Young (Jody) and many friends. Drs. Elisabeth and Dean Collins are inurned at Penwell-Gabel Memorial Park Cemetery, S.W. 6th and Gage Blvd, Topeka, Kansas. On Elisabeth’s death, she established the Drs. Dean T. and Elisabeth Collins Scholarship Fund at the Kansas University Endowment Association. This scholarship makes study in Germany possible for Kansas University students.