Karen Torbjornsen

3/16/1970 – 8/22/2025
Karen Torbjornsen, New York, NY – Humanitarian, progressive, therapist, artist, patron of the arts, page turner, animal lover, and most devoted friend, cherished life partner, daughter, and sister. Karen approached life and the world around her with abounded love, respect, discipline, generosity of spirit, compassion, and optimism. She lived bravely with cancer for many years and rather than engaging her illness in battle, she embraced it as another chapter in her life that brought personal triumph, clarity, growth, gratitude, and many gifts.
Karen was born in Oslo, Norway and soon moved to northwestern Pennsylvania. She spent her formative years riding her bike, excelling in school, exploring the ravines and woods of rural PA, building forts and lifelong friendships, singing showtunes, embracing a world of make believe, and cultivating a rich value system and moral compass. These values catapulted her success in London, Minneapolis, Chicago, the Berkshires, and eventually New York City. She touched countless lives on her journey as an artist, teacher, counselor, and humanitarian. She dedicated her life to giving direction, insight, and love to struggling adolescents and teens, the forgotten elderly, the sick and wounded, and mentally ill. All the while, her cheerful spirit and warmth touched every face she met be it a local barista, nurse, shop owner, homeless soul, straphanger, colleague, or anyone lucky enough to cross her path. Sure of herself, she was the epitome of beauty, grace, and eloquence.
Karen is preceded in death by her parents, Hans and Barbara Torbjornsen. She is survived by her beloved life partner Michael Manner of Brooklyn, her devoted brother Einar Torbjornsen of Cambridge Springs, and her best friend of 48 years Erinn Casale Michalek of New York City. She will be missed immensely, but her spirit will live on in the lives she touched and in a world that she truly made a better place. A celebration of life is planned in New York City before the holidays.
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