- Date Of Birth: October 2, 1930
- Date Of Death: May 22, 2009
- State: Connecticut
Ellen Gates D’Oench, “Puffin” died at her home on Coleman Road in Middletown on Friday, May 22nd at age 78. She was Curator Emerita of the Davison Art Center, Adjunct Professor of Art History Emerita, and a former trustee of Wesleyan University. Mrs. D’Oench attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, and interrupted her education at Vassar College to marry Russell “Derry” D’Oench and to raise their family, Peter, Ellen , Dodie, Russell, Toby, and Jennifer D’Oench. She completed her education at Wesleyan in 1973, graduating magna cum laude in the same class as her son Peter. She received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1979 with her doctoral dissertation, Arthur Devis: Master of the Georgian Conversation Piece, She organized or co-organized nationally traveling exhibitions, and wrote catalogues on various artists, including Arthur Devis, Jim Dine, and Sylvia Plimack Mangold. Her book, “Copper into Gold”: Prints by John Raphael Smith (1752-1812), was published in 1999 by the Yale University Press. Her courses at Wesleyan focused on topics related to the university’s 20, 000 works on paper. Aided by gifts and by Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, she added about 5, 000 photographs and important prints to the collection. She was a member of the Print Council of America. Mrs. D’Oench was the first woman to be elected to the board of an area bank, City Savings. In the ’60s she served as treasurer of Homesteads, Inc., an organization that facilitated mortgages for low-income homeowners in the greater Middletown community. She was a trustee of Miss Porter’s School, a board member of the Middlesex NAACP, and of the Greater Middletown Community Corporation, and a corporator of Middlesex Hospital.
