Phyllis Kolman was born in March 1941 in New York, NY to Jacob and Fanny Kalmis. She went to High School in Hartford and then on to Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. After getting married she settled in suburban Boston and raised two children, Michael and Hilary.
When her marriage ended in 1983 she decided to go to law school. During law school she and some friends of a similar generation founded the informal club known as the “Owls” (Older, Women, Law Students). In 1986, despite having spent the previous three years shepherding two teenage children through activities and homework, she graduated from Boston College School of Law. She joined the law firm of Benjamin & Benson in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It would be her home for the next 25 years. Through her focus on family law she helped hundreds of clients through some of the most difficult emotional times in their lives.
Phyllis retired from her law practice in 2011 and in 2014 she moved to Nathaniel Witherell.
After her children and grandchildren, Phyllis’ great passion was the arts (she was a subscriber to the Boston Ballet for over 20 years) and travel. She found a wonderful group of travel companions, first through tour groups and then with friends and colleagues. Her favorite destinations were Martha’s Vineyard, Florida, and Europe. Some of her favorite trips were the ones she took to France and Italy with her best friends and fellow lawyers in the 1990s and the ones she made to her cousin’s home in Florida where she would often help work the booth at antique fairs and flea markets.
She was an eternally positive person who greeted everyone with a smile. Her warmth and her smile will be deeply missed by all who knew her.