Elinor Torstveit
Elinor Torstveit (b. 1919 – d. 2006)
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Biology Professor 1954-1990
Biography
Elinor Torstveit, known as Concordia’s “Snake Lady," was born in Montana and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and had been accepted to medical school. She, however, chose not to attend stating later that it wasn’t possible for a married woman at the time. She moved to Moorhead in 1949 after her husband, Olaf, accepted a teaching position in Concordia’s Biology Department. In 1954, Elinor joined him in the department after R. E. Fuglestad, the department chair, stopped the family on their way to a camping trip and offered her a job in the lab.
Torstveit had always been interested in reptiles and became the Biology Department’s “keeper of the snakes” in addition to teaching Biology 101. Torstveit’s passion for education and service extended beyond the science building and into the community. With the legless creatures in hand, she promoted a better understanding of snakes to the public through a traveling reptile show. At one point, Torstveit estimated that between 500 and 600 grade school children viewed the biology building’s snake display.