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DOROTHY ANNE FRIESEN
Born: May 27, 1949
Date of Passing: Jan 28, 2025
Send Flowers to the Family Offer Condolences or MemoryDOROTHY ANNE FRIESEN
Dorothy Anne Friesen passed away peacefully at her home in West St. Paul on Tuesday, January 28, at the age of 75.
She was pre-deceased by her mother Katherine Friesen (nee Epp) who was born May 16, 1910, in Waldheim SK, father Jacob Dietrich Friesen who was born January 6, 1913 in Ekaterinoslav, Russia, and by her husband Gene Stoltzfus of Indiana who passed away suddenly on March 10, 2010, in Emo, Ontario. She is survived by brothers James Friesen of Kitchener, Ontario, Robert Friesen of Winnipeg and Thomas Friesen of Vancouver, BC.
Dorothy was born in Winnipeg May 27, 1949, and attended Vincent Massey and Mennonite Brethren Collegiate before graduating from the University of Manitoba. She attended the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, where she met Gene and married him in 1975.
They worked for the Mennonite Central Committee in Asia and became country co-directors for the Philippines where Dorothy was based in a poor urban district of Davao on the island of Mindanao. One day she was quickly given a sari and asked to speak to the group of soldiers heading their way. She was able to confuse and misdirect them from the local women activists they had come for. She also stayed for a time in an indigenous hillside village where residents routinely scrambled to shelters during daily bombings from the air force of martial law ruler Ferdinand Marcos who wanted their land for a large hydro project.
Dorothy later wrote a book about her experiences and the large-scale effects of colonialism, US government policy and the domination of multi-national fruit growers in the Philippines. She also offered pathways to restore democracy and economic well-being in “Critical Choices: a Journey with the Filipino People.”
Dorothy and Gene moved back to Chicago in 1981 where she became a director of Synapses, a non-profit focused on social justice and human rights issues. They also worked together in Christian Peacemaker Teams with Dorothy putting out a newsletter while Gene was often out with a team standing between warring sides in combat zones from Colombia to Gaza. Dorothy began working on social justice issues in Chicago with allies in the Black gospel church.
When they retired and moved to Northern Ontario in 2004, she immersed herself in working on reconciliation as an ally to indigenous people in Rainy River and then around Emo where Gene and Dorothy had purchased their retirement cabin. She was gifted with an eagle feather on her 60th birthday.
After Gene’s death, she returned to Winnipeg and settled in Osborne Village where she continued to write while practicing and teaching a healing technique called Body Talk. Dorothy was a self-described “rabble rouser” and kept up the struggle for reconciliation, joining with tribes in the Dakotas for the anti-pipeline protests at Standing Rock in 2016.
But if the struggle was her task, her gift was an amazing ability to connect with people. Those she touched in the Philippines, Chicago and Northern Ontario became close friends for life.
Blessed are the Peacemakers . . .
As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Feb 08, 2025
Condolences & Memories (12 entries)
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I met Dorothy at BodyTalk courses held in Toronto 20 years ago. Her kindness was immediately evident and we enjoyed many traded sessions. Her dedication to Wellness was paramount. She was such a great example of wisdom and strength. She will be missed by many. Nancy - Posted by: Nancy Briggs (Body Talk Practitioner) on: Feb 20, 2025
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I met Dorothy through BodyTalk courses over 20 years ago. To meet her was to instantly feel her love and the beauty of her soul. Though I haven't seen her for years now I will still carry that feeling as long as i live and love. - Posted by: julia laidlaw (friend and colleague) on: Feb 20, 2025
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Dorothy was my first antiracism trainer when I went through CPT training in 1993. Over the years, I learned so much from her and she was able to soften Gene's sharp edges for me. I shared a bunk with her and talked about everything for hours, including writing novels. - Posted by: Kathleen Kern (She was my antiracism trainer and I thought she was awesome) on: Feb 20, 2025
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I met and collaborated with Dorothy back in the autumn of 2016 in North Dakota. I was living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at that time, just 6 hours south of where hired mercenaries had begun abusing our Native American human family in the Standing Rock Reservation oil pipeline resistance camps, and Dorothy was just north, up in Canada. I set up a BodyTalkers Without Borders Facebook group, inviting a rotation of BodyTalk Practitioners to be there to volunteer in the medic tents. Dorothy was the very first person to join the FB Group and the first to meet me there and stay in the camp. I will never forget the moment we recognized each other in-person for the first time in the camp - and the long, warm, silent, heart-soothing hug we shared and the deep relief and soul-nourishment of getting to "care" so deeply together. There was a deep, deep soul-level need to be able to show up and respond, and both of us so clearly felt it and it brought us together. With Dorothy joining, her presence felt to me like a blessing of an entire cosmic wind of power that helped "spread out" the pressure of the gravity of so much collective trauma all concentrated in this one location. Humble power with a depth beyond words. I will always remember you, Dorothy. I cry tears of honor of having had the blessing of being in your presence, our collaboration, your wisdom, and your timeless, endless care. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for being you. - Posted by: Angela K Johnson (Colleague) on: Feb 19, 2025
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I first met Dorothy just over 20 years ago when we were both starting our training and respective practices as BodyTalk (healthcare) practitioners. We quickly became friends and, while living in different cities/provinces, we continued our friendship on an ongoing basis up until this last couple of months, when she was unable to take my calls. I am deeply saddened at her passing and I will miss her. I pray that she has achieved the peace she has so deeply desired. - Posted by: Patricia Arges (Friend) on: Feb 18, 2025
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Dorothy was my tour guide on a trip to the Philippines during the Marcos-Aquino election. The trip was eye-opening— sleeping on a picket line, sleeping in a squatter’s residence, tracking the different counts of the election including the death count, and getting out days before the Manila airport closed. Dorothy introduced many of us rather privileged North Americans to a world foreign to us and familiar to her. - Posted by: Ingrid Peters-Fransen (Friend) on: Feb 17, 2025
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I only met Dorothy online through social media, but I had several connections with Gene beginning in 1990 at a CPT Congress in Ottawa on Nitassinan First Nation's (Labarador) protests of NATO's frightening low level flying over their territory. Gene and I as a CPTer connected several times during his tenure as Director of CPT. I just remember his kindness and care and I'm sure that was a reflection of Dorothy as well. Dorothy - Presente! - Posted by: Murray Lumley (Friend) on: Feb 16, 2025
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What a gift to have known Dorothy and Gene, relying on their wisdom, good will and courage while reveling in their love for life. During decades when Dorothy lived in Chicago, I often asked her for advice or assistance. She would respond immediately. The open door at Synapses set a fine example for all who entered. The teamwork Dorothy and Gene fostered remains life giving. - Posted by: Kathy Kelly (friend) on: Feb 15, 2025
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I met Dorothy and Gene at Synapses. My mother typed their newsletter. I served on the Synapses board and later Dorothy and I became an anti-racism training team at CPT. We grew together as friends and worked together as social justice activists. Dorothy was brilliant and humble. I hope she was able to finish her book. Blessings to the peacemakers. - Posted by: mary Scott Boria (Friend) on: Feb 14, 2025
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Dorothy and Gene were great examples to many of us of how to live out one's belief in peace and justice. They will be remembered with much love and respect. - Posted by: Jude Krehbiel (friend) on: Feb 14, 2025
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When I was in the home of Dorothy and Gene, I felt as though we had chosen some of the same paths of justice and peace making. That Way seems to be based in sharing so there is sufficiency, choosing downward mobility, standing in solidarity with those at risk, and finding a spiritual undergirding that will carry all of us through times of struggle. As witnesses to goodness and rightness, Dorothy and Gene set a pattern for others to emulate. Praise God for Dorothy and Gene! - Posted by: Cliff Kindy (Colleague with both Dorothy and Gene in CPT.) on: Feb 14, 2025
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Dorothy and Gene were both important influences in my life. They showed me a path of working for justice and peace which I have tried to follow in my own life. - Posted by: Paul Neufeld Weaver (friend) on: Feb 14, 2025
