[3] She began her education at Vassar College before returning to the Bay Area to study at the California School of Fine Arts.
[5] She married Robert Boardman Howard on August 5, 1930, after they worked together on the Pacific Stock Exchange building, a Miller and Pflueger architecture firm project.
[9][non-primary source needed] Kent also felt comfortable with taking ideas from the human form because our bodies are familiar and easy to shape into various artistic position.
This foundation in the form of the human body led her to discover her true passion of creating works of art that dealt with the flow of nature.
[9] During the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay (1939–1940), Kent produced three sculptures that were part of a group of twenty located around the Fountain of Western Waters.
Pacifica, designed by Kent's teacher, sculptor Ralph Stackpole, was an 80 foot "goddess of Pacific Unity" at the head of the court.
[11] Adaline Kent was an alumna and a former board member (1947–1957) of the San Francisco Art Institute, and left it $10,000 to establish an annual award for promising artists from California.
Winners included Ron Nagle (1978), Wally Hedrick (1985), David Ireland (1987),[12] Mildred Howard (1991), Clare Rojas (2004),[13] and the last recipient, Scott Williams (2005).