Evening Capital Annapolis, Maryland, November 23, 1931
Announcement of the sudden death of Henry J. Kolbe was made yesterday in the Wesley Bible Class meeting, and at the Divine Service of Calvary M.E. Church.
A member of the church for a number of years, Mr. Kolbe had become sexton of the church in 1924, a position he preformed faithfully till about two years ago, when he was compelled to relinquish his position and take to his bed.
Two or three months ago he was able to go about again and attended the church several times till he was stricken Friday night.
Born in Philadelphia eighty years ago, Mr. Kolbe entered at first the trade of cabinet maker. At the close of the last century he was a local preacher in Prince George County, from whence he came to Annapolis about 1910. For several years he held a position at the Naval Academy Experimental Station here. Then he was employed by the Emergency Hospital as caretaker, after which he entered upon what was to be his last duty on earth.
A profoundly Christian man, Mr. Kolbe accepted philosophically adversity as trials of Almighty God which must be met with fortitude and with out murmur. He will be greatly missed by his numerous friends and by the members of the Wesley Bible Class of which he was a faithful member in his days of better health.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary Beall Kolbe; a daughter by a first marriage, Mrs. Daisy Sheick, and three sons, James Samuel, Emmett Leroy, and Henry Eugene Kolbe.
The funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock from the residence of his son, Sam Kolbe, at Weems Creek. Interment will be in Wellsview cemetery, West Annapolis, the Rev. Dr. Joseph T. Herson, of Calvary M.E. Church will officiate at the funeral.