Why This Site?

Arkady Cyrillovich Weber (1896 – 1975) and Marguerite Andreevna Weber, nee Fedotov (1898 – 1980) passed from this life four decades ago, leaving an enduring mark on the lives of all who knew them.   

Born into the Russian educated class, the Webers counted renowned artists and musicians as relatives.   They witnessed pivotal events in the fall of a vast and ancient regime – not once, but twice.  Having fled Russia in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1917 to take refuge in China, they escaped China’s Revolution of 1949 aboard the last ship to leave Shanghai before the city fell to the Red Army.    

That ship took the Webers to Rio de Janiero, whose language was not among the six in which they were fluent.   Presbyterian missionaries, seeing their desperate plight and exceptional talents, facilitated the Webers’ immigration to the United States by finding them teaching positions at a tiny Presbyterian college in Kentucky’s Appalachian foothills.   

Marguerite and Arkady spent their final three decades in Pikeville, Kentucky, where they taught art and piano at Pikeville College, now the University of Pikeville.   The University's Marguerite Weber Art Gallery honors her role in founding the school’s art department.    For their students and friends, the Webers were also a window on the world beyond eastern Kentucky's sheltering hills.   To know their story was to care more deeply about the lessons of history.  

We hope this site's archives and narratives will be useful to others researching related persons or events. But for those who knew Marguerite and Arkady during their final decades, the ultimate reason for this site is our conviction that their story is too important to die with us.