Barbara Atlas

Barbara Frank Atlas, 80, a resident of Manchester, passed away July 27, 2017. Barbara was born in Bayonne, New Jersey on March 11, 1937, the daughter of the late George Frank and Jean Janofsky Frank. She spent her formative years in Laurelton, New York and attended local schools there. She attended Syracuse University and graduated with a BA in English in 1958 from Queens College in New York. Later in life she earned a certificate in Landscape Design at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. Barbara married Ernest Atlas, MD in 1957 and together they moved around the country while Ernest completed his medical education, before settling in Connecticut in 1970, where they raised their three children, David, Jennifer and Ian. The marriage ended in divorce in 1996. Barbara lived in Connecticut for many years, living in the towns of Norwalk, Westport, and Wilton before her recent move to Vermont to be closer to her daughter and grandsons. Barbara was an avid gardener with an encyclopedic knowledge of botany: she recognized by sight and knew the scientific names of thousands of plants. Upon earning her Landscape Design certificate she established a business called "The Shady Lady, Inc.". Barbara created a vibrant and colorful home for her family. She loved trying out new crafts and projects and gradually focused her artistic eye and skills into being an artist. Her home was an artist's home full of sculpture and paintings created at her home away from home, The Silvermine Artists Guild. An eclectic collection of antiques of many eras blended together beautifully under Barbara's artistic eye and her incredible knowledge of antiques. She also knew all the antique dealers far and wide as she was a very friendly and curious woman who was eager to learn and meet new people. Barbara was a voracious reader, an extraordinary Trivial Pursuit player, a lover of music and humor. She also loved animals: there were always multiple cats, some dogs and over the years a turtle, some ducks and some geese. She had the wanderlust and loved travelling, visiting 6 continents in her lifetime. She always loved learning about new cultures, new languages and trying out new cuisines. An intelligent and entertaining person, she always arrived with a good story to share, and the later she was, the better the story got. Barbara Atlas was a member of the Wilton Garden Club, the Connecticut Rock Garden Society, the Rhododendron Society of Connecticut, and a lifelong member of Hadassah. Barbara is survived by her children, Ian Atlas and his wife, Renu Karir, of San Francisco, California, David Atlas and his wife, Jacqueline, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Jennifer Atlas and her husband, John Coppola, of Manchester, Vermont, her brother Richard Frank and his wife Nancy and grandchildren Hayley, Emma and Charlotte Atlas and Joshua and Noah Coppola. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that gifts in Barbara's memory be made to the Alzheimer's Association or the ASPCA. To send the family personal email condolences please visit www.sheafuneralhomes.com.