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Honoring the legacy of Sandy West, Ossabaw Island
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Ossabaw Island Foundation offer our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Eleanor “Sandy” Torrey West who died on January 17, 2021 at the age of 108. Both the Georgia DNR and the Ossabaw Island Foundation have worked closely with Ms. West over the past several decades.
Ms. West served as the matriarch of Ossabaw Island, which is made up of 26,000 unspoiled acres of forest, wetlands and beaches on the Georgia coast in Chatham County. Ms. West’s parents purchased the island in 1924 and in 1978, Ms. West and her family sold Ossabaw Island to the state of Georgia. At that time, an executive order established Ossabaw as Georgia’s first heritage preserve, which decrees that the island may only be used for “natural, scientific and cultural study, research and education, and environmentally sound preservation, conservation and management of the island’s ecosystem.”