ATHANASSIA TORTOISE

Suddenly, at 102, while hosting an intimate dinner party in her den. Athanassia Tortoise, member of The Park’s first Tortoise family and founder of the Tortoise Immigrant Aid and Mentor Programme. A mother of fourteen, Athanassia was born Athanassia Gopherus Agassizii in Conejera, a burrow of southwestern Utah, but moved to The Park with her family when she was twenty years old. Responding to the need for a programme that would aid other Tortoises in the transition from Desert to Park, Athanassia established the Tortoise Immigrant Aid and Mentor Programme and devoted much of her energy over the next 80 years to helping immigrant Tortoises and to training other Tortoises to carry on her life’s work. A memorial service is planned.