Mary Ravenel Torras

Mary Ravenel Torras (Mitzi), nee, Robertson, of 12 Tradd Street in Charleston, SC., died peacefully on Wednesday at the hospital of the Medical University of Charleston after a brief illness, in the presence of her three children and two of her grandchildren.

Mrs. Torras was born in Columbia, SC., on June 25, 1927, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas James Robertson. Her mother was the former Mary Martin.

Mrs. Torras attended school at Chatham Hall in Chatham, VA, from which she graduated in 1945. She was an equestrian, and took her horse to school with her. Her Chatham Hall roommates later accompanied her to live in Boston, Mass., where she met her future husband, Joseph Hill Torras.

In 1950, prior to her marriage, Mrs. Torras went to Paris, where she worked as secretary to the visiting American ambassador working on the Marshall Plan. She returned to the United States in 1951, and was married to Mr. Torras in September of that year.

After several years, the Torrases moved to New Canaan, CT, where their three children were born. Subsequently, the family moved to Hampden, MA, and shortly thereafter to Shelburne, MA, where they resided until Mr. Torras retired.

Mrs. Torras spent every summer in Flat Rock, NC, where her mother had a summer house. She and her husband took up skiing in the mid-1960s. They skied in Vermont every weekend during the winter, and later spent time every winter skiing in Austria. Mrs. Torras spent many winters working as a Ski Ambassador at Mount Snow, VT.

After rearing her children, Mrs. Torras received her bachelor's degree summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, and later her master's degree in German language and literature from the same institution.

Mrs. Torras was an enthusiastic preservationist, and a founding member of the Franklin Land Trust, the primary land conservation organization for Franklin County, Massachusetts, in which Shelburne is located.

Mrs. Torras is survived by her husband of sixty-one years, still of 12 Tradd Street, her children, Mary Martin Torras of New York, NY, Fernanda Maria Harrington of Warner, NH, and Joseph Hill Torras, Jr., of Amherst, MA, her brother, Major General Edwin Wales Robertson, (ret.) of Columbia, S.C., and eight grandchildren.

The funeral will take place at St. Michael's Church, 71 Broad St., in Charleston, at 3:00 pm. on Friday August 24. Committal will be on Saturday in the Elmwood Cemetery in Columbia, SC.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations in memory of Mrs. Torras be made to the Franklin Land Trust, 679A Mohawk Trail, P.O. Box 450, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370, www.franklinlandtrust.org http://www.franklinlandtrust.org.