Alumna’s Bulgarian ties started as a CC student

Anne Oppenheim Freed ’38 and her husband Roy, front row, visit with CC students. Pictured from left are: Lauren Burke ’06, Boyan Roussinov ’08 of Bulagaria, Holly Dranginis ’06, Md. Yaseen Choudhury ’06 and Jason Siebenthall '06.

Teaching comes naturally to Roy and Anne Oppenheim Freed ’38, so when an opportunity arose to combine their expertise in law and social work with their interest in Bulgaria, they seized it.

It was 1989 and the Freeds were 72. Two years earlier, the chance discovery of a long-lost friend rekindled their connection to Bulgaria. That connection began 70 years ago when Anne was a CC student.

During the summer of her senior year, Anne studied at the Geneva School of International Relations in Switzerland. The experience, she says, led to a “series of coincidences” that sparked a relationship with Bulgaria for the Freeds that continues to enrich their retirement. The Freeds recently visited with a group of international relations students on campus and talked about those coincidences, their 14 trips to Bulgaria since 1987 and their involvement in a variety of projects there.

Anne, who retired in 1990 and still teaches at the Smith College School for Social Work, was a political science and history major at CC with a special interest in international relations. She participated in the Model League of Nations, representing the College at schools around New England. She also was active in the International Relations Club and the Debate Club when international topics were the subject of discussion.

While studying in Switzerland, she met Nevena Geliazkova, a student from Bulgaria. They became friends, and the following year Geliazkova came to the United States to study. They visited each other frequently over the next several years. Freed worked as a social analyst for the War Relocation Administration, running centers where Japanese people on the West Coast were required to live. Geliazkova returned to her native country after the war.

“We corresponded after she returned to Bulgaria to live with her sister, but had to cease because of the Cold War antipathy between Communist Bulgaria and the U.S., particularly because of McCarthyism here while my husband worked for the U.S. Department of Justice,” Anne explained. They lost touch.

That changed in 1985. Acquaintances of the Freeds who also knew Geliazkova spotted a letter from her in Life magazine. They contacted the magazine for her address and met up with her a short time later at the Sofia, Bulgaria railroad station. Geliazkova gave them a letter for Anne and asked them to deliver it. In 1987, the Freeds reunited with Geliazkova after 40 years by making their first visit to Bulgaria.

During the visit, the Freeds met a student who wanted to apply for a Fulbright Fellowship to study in the United States. Roy contacted an official of the program in Washington, D.C. on the student’s behalf to learn about the application process. After hearing that Roy was a retired lawyer, the official suggested that he apply to teach American law in Bulgaria. Anne also applied to teach psychology at Sofia University. Both of them were accepted to the program in 1989.

The Freeds’ role in Bulgarian education flourished. They taught and lectured frequently and advised people on how to organize and operate non-governmental organizations when Bulgaria started its move to democracy. Anne helped establish a department of clinical social work at the New Bulgarian University in 1992, modeling the school after the one at Smith. Roy promoted the first organized American tourism in the country.

Freed recalls her time at CC fondly and remembers dining at the home of then-President Katharine Blunt to hear visiting scholars speak, including the British political scientist Harold Laski. Coming back to meet with students is special for her.

“I like returning to the College to see how it has grown and developed, to see what it is achieving, to learn what the students are thinking and doing,” she said. Anne said CC offers them remarkable opportunities.

“I wish I could go to college these days,” she said. “There are so many courses I would take now that were not available then.”