By Poppy Benson with Sharon Baur
Mary Frische, photographer, artist, ardent refuge supporter, volunteer and early Friends Board member left us last week at nearly 90. Mary with her husband Tom Collopy photographed six Alaska refuges, Alaska Maritime, Kenai, Kanuti, Alaska Peninsula, Izembek and Yukon Delta, as Friends volunteers. Their work is an integral part of the Alaska Maritime and Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Centers. A show of their Yukon Delta and Alaska Maritime images was hung in the Wendy Williamson Auditorium at UAA for a 2009 event celebrating the 100th anniversary of those Teddy Roosevelt Refuges featuring historian Douglas Brinkley speaking on Roosevelt. Their images have been featured in numerous refuge publications and talks and you can see more of them below.
Mary and Tom came to Alaska, photography and refuges late in life after retirement. On one of their Alaska vacations, Mary told Tom “I don’t want to leave” so they moved to Homer in 2001. They didn’t intend to get as deep into the photography business as they did forming Wild North Photography, and they had no prior experience with national wildlife refuges, but it all just evolved. Former Alaska Maritime refuge manager Greg Siekaniec “discovered” them at a show of their work featuring the lands stewarded by the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust. Greg recruited them to photograph for the refuge’s brand-new visitor center in Homer promising them a trip on the refuge ship Tiglax and passage to the Pribilofs to get the job done. Tom says the lure of getting to places they wouldn’t be able to otherwise plus their growing love of refuges sold them on the volunteer job which took nearly two years. Mary told me once that she couldn’t tell you which photos she took and which Tom took. To the refuge they were always “Mary and Tom”, “Tom and Mary”. 
Tom and Mary on assignment on Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
But Mary’s support for refuges and Friends went even beyond the years they spent photographing refuges. She served on the Board and as a liaison to Kodiak Refuge. She was also a dear friend and inspiration to many Friends.
Former Board member Sharon Baur writes this about Mary. “Mary was an extraordinary artist—an accomplished photographer and painter whose creativity flowed effortlessly through clay, film, and paint. Yet her greatest talent reached far beyond any medium. Mary had the rare gift of creating a space that felt happy, calm, safe, and full of humor. To know her was to feel welcomed and seen. That was her crowning art. Mary brought joy so naturally, so generously. Through her, I learned to see with the heart and eyes of an artist. Her gift to me is cherished beyond words, and I carry it every day. In gratitude and love, I strive to pass on what she so freely gave—joy, beauty, and a way of seeing the world more gently.
I will miss her deeply.”
And so will all of us at Friends. Rest in peace dear Mary and thank you for everything.
