Ellen Randolph Coolidge Burbank (1945 – 2023) was an American philanthropist, publicist, and executive in the non-profit sector. She was executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance from 1976 to 1980, and later of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum in Massachusetts from 2001 to 2011. She was a program officer for the

Pew Charitable Trusts The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent ...

from 1987 to 2001.

Early life and education

Coolidge was born in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

, the daughter of Francis Lowell Coolidge and Helen Read Curtis Coolidge. She had a twin brother, Frank. Her father worked for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and the

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, and as a child she lived in Washington, D.C., Switzerland, and Tunisia. She attended Rosemary Hall, and graduated from

Finch College Finch College was an undergraduate women's college in Manhattan, New York City. The Finch School opened as a private secondary school for girls in 1900 and became a liberal arts college in 1952. It closed in 1976. Founding Finch was founded in ...

in 1967.

Career

Burbank worked in the public relations officer at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in the late 1960s. She moved to Philadelphia in 1975, when her husband began a long career at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. She was Director of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance from 1976 to 1980, assistant vice president of community affairs at Philadelphia Savings Fund Society from 1980 to 1984, and was a program officer for The Pew Charitable Trusts from 1987 to 2001. In Massachusetts later in life, Burbank was executive director of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum from 2001 to 2011. During her tenure, the museum became a popular site for same-sex marriage ceremonies, which became legal in Massachusetts in 2004. She was a trustee of New England Village, the

independent living Independent living (IL), as seen by its advocates, is a philosophy, a way of looking at society and disability, and a worldwide movement of disabled people working for equal opportunities, self-determination, and self-respect. In the context o ...

community in Pembroke, Massachusetts, where her son was a resident. She was also a trustee of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. She advised and consulted for organizations including the Gates Foundation, Jobs for the Future, and the Rhode Island Foundation.

Personal life

Coolidge married her brother's Harvard roommate, lawyer and law professor Stephen Burbank, in 1970. They had a son, Peter, born in 1981. Her son's disabilities shaped some of her philanthropic interests and activities. She died in 2023, at the age of 77, after several years of declining health from dementia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burbank, Ellen Coolidge 1945 births 2023 deaths American publicists 20th-century American philanthropists American women philanthropists Museum administrators People from Waltham, Massachusetts Choate Rosemary Hall alumni Finch College alumni