Torrey, Ella King, 1957-2003

Ella King Torrey was born in 1957 in Bronxville, New York and died in San Francisco, California in 2003. She grew up in Evansville, Indiana and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was in marketing and her mother, Ella Russell Torrey, was a diplomat. They were Episcopalians. Ella King Torrey attended the Springside School in Chestnut Hill and graduated from Germantown Friends School, both in Philadelphia. She took her bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1980 and her master's degree from the University of Mississippi. Both degrees were in art history. In 1985 she took a position as a program analyst with the Glenmede Trust Company working with its cultural grantmaking. In 1991 she became the founding director of the Pew Fellowships in the Arts. Between 1995 and 2002 she was president of the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1995 she was awarded the Samual S. Fleisher Art Memorial's founder's medal.