Ellen C Revelle

Described as a “community icon” in La Jolla, Ms. Revelle was involved in dozens of San Diego’s educational and artistic institutions, including the University of California, San Diego, the La Jolla Historical Society, the La Jolla Music Society, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the San Diego Opera. Born Ellen Virginia Clark in the La Jolla guesthouse of her great-aunt Ellen Browning Scripps in 1910, Ms. Revelle grew up largely in Pasadena visiting La Jolla frequently with her family. After graduating with the first class from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., which had been founded by her great-aunt, she married Roger Revelle. He would go on to become one of the nation’s most prominent scientists and is credited with discovering the phenomenon of global warming. Through her marriage to Roger, Ellen traveled a great deal and lived around the United States and beyond. During World War II, she and her family lived in Washington, D.C. The family moved to Cambridge, Mass., from 1964 to 1978 when Roger headed up the Harvard Center for Population Studies. Along with her late husband, Ms. Revelle was involved in bringing a University of California campus to San Diego, and in growing the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which is now part of the university. The Revelle family purchased The Daily Transcript in 1986. In 1993, two years after Roger died, Ms. Revelle married Rollin Eckis, a friend and former colleague of Roger’s, who was also the widower of one of Ellen’s childhood friends. The two were married until Eckis’ death in 1999. Though she changed her name to Ellen Revelle Eckis during their marriage, she went back to just Revelle after Eckis died. Revelle is survived by her four children, Anne Shumway of Cambridge, Mass., Mary Paci of New York City, Carolyn Revelle of Sausalito, Calif., and William Revelle and his wife Eleanor Revelle of Evanston, Ill., as well as her two step daughters, Nancy Eckis and Ellen Schmitt. There are also 11 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.