Helen Storrow

Helen Osborne Storrow (September 22, 1864 – November 12, 1944) was an American philanthropist, early Girl Scout leader, and chair of the World Committee of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) for eight years. She founded the First National Girl Scout Leaders' Training in Long Pond, Massachusetts; headed the leaders' training camp at Foxlease, UK; and donated the first of the WAGGGS World centres, Our Chalet.

She was married to James J. Storrow, a banker, who was the second national president of the Boy Scouts of America.

Storrow provided a million dollars toward improvements of the Boston Embankment along the Charles River. The waterfront park was officially renamed the Storrow Memorial Embankment, but continues to be known as the Esplanade.

Family and progressive roots

Born Helen Osborne on September 22, 1864, in Auburn, New York, she was the youngest of David Munson ("Munson") Osborne and Eliza Wright's four children. Her parents were raised in modest circumstances, but by the time of Storrow's birth, Munson Osborne had become one of the most prominent men in Cayuga County. Storrow and her siblings enjoyed a happy and privileged upbringing, attending private schools, traveling through Europe, and spending summers at their home on Owasco Lake at Willow Point, New York. The Osborne mansion at 99 South Street served as a cultural center in Auburn.

Storrow's eldest sister, Emily (1854–1944), married Springfield banker Frederick Harris; her next eldest sister, Florence (1856–1877), was described as a gentle girl, extremely fond of animals, who died of typhoid fever, leaving behind a fiancée, Samuel Bowles; her only brother, Thomas Mott Osborne (1859–1926), inherited his father's business, and became a stalwart advocate of prison reform.