Gilda Mann Ellis

Gilda Mann Ellis, of Haverford and formerly Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, beloved wife of seventy years of the late ophthalmologist Dr. Richard A. Ellis and daughter of Ambassador Fredric R. Mann and Henrietta Weber Steinberg, passed away on December 31, 2024 at the age of ninety-six. 

An acclaimed artist, she produced hundreds of abstract oil and acrylic paintings, silk-screen prints, sculpture and artistic photographs. Her work was featured in one-persons exhibits and included in group exhibitions in museums and galleries in the United States and Mexico and at the U.N. Women’s Conference in Nairobi Kenya. She served as the national president of Artist Equity, which promoted the interests of professional artists, chair of the fine arts committee of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and a Mummers String Band judge. A world traveler, she rode a donkey to visit the ruins in Petra, Yemen and studied the art of papermaking in China and Upper Mongolia. 

She is survived by her daughters Marsha Ellis, Susan Ellis and partner David Prince, Jane Ellis Gitomer and her husband Glenn Gitomer, and Eve Ellis and her wife Annette Niemtzow, her grandchildren Andrew Ellis Gitomer, Carolyn Ellis Gitomer and Dr. Julia Ellis-Kahana and her husband Joshua Budman, and a great grandchild Asher Budman. 

A funeral service will be held at noon January 3, 2025, at Main Line Reform Temple, 410 Montgomery Avenue, Wynnewood, Pa 19096. Interment at Roosevelt Memorial Park, 2701 Old Lincoln Hwy, Trevose, PA. Shiva will begin at 4:00PM at the home of Jane and Glenn Gitomer. 

The family requests that donations in memory of Ms. Ellis be made to the Wills Eye Alumni Society for the benefit of The Richard A. Ellis, M.D. Lecture (willsalumni.org) or The Mann Center for the Performing Arts (manncenter.org).

Arrangements by Joseph Levine & Sons, 4737 Street Road, Trevose, PA 19053 (www.levinefuneral.com)