Kolbert graduated from
Perth Amboy High School and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the
University of Southern California, in 1948 and 1949 respectively, before pursuing doctoral studies at
Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. He also studied at the
Sorbonne and was later recognized as a
Literary Laureate of the
University of Paris. In 1973, while teaching French at UNM, he nominated
Elie Wiesel for the
Nobel Prize in Literature. Wiesel was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Becoming engaged in the local community, Kolbert served as president of the
Albuquerque City Council from 1974 to 1977, before suddenly announcing his resignation to take up the position as President of the
Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies (MIFS), where he served as Interim in 1977 and was inaugurated on March 11, 1978. He served in that position until 1980. and as an administrator at the
California Academy of Sciences in
San Francisco. In 1985, he became a professor of modern languages at
Susquehanna University, where he also chaired the department. He retired from Susquehanna in 1996 with the title of Professor Emeritus. During his career, he published ten books and more than 500 articles on
French literature and civilization. His final book, published in 2001, was a collaboration with
Elie Wiesel on Wiesel’s experiences and reflections on the Holocaust. He died on September 25, 2005, at the age of 78, after an illness with
pancreatic cancer. He had two sons, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. == Written works ==