May 24, 2017
Anne LeDow
Ellen Browning Scripps: Journalist, Philanthropist and Confidante

Ann DeLow is the great-great niece of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), the American journalist and philanthropist who was the founding donor of several major institutions in Southern California. She and her brother E.W. Scripps created America's largest chain of newspapers, linking midwestern industrial cities with booming towns in the west. By the 1920s, Ellen Browning Scripps was worth an estimated $30 million (or $3.5 billion in 2016 dollars), most of which she gave away. She established the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, the oldest and largest center for ocean and earth science research. She appeared on the cover of Time magazine after founding Scripps College in Claremont, California. She also donated millions of dollars to organizations, worldwide, that promised to advance democratic principles and women's education.