Pamela Wolfe Roblyer Ph.D.

1943 - 2022

Pamela Wolfe Roblyer, Ph.D., writer, editor, avid grammarian, and self-described lifelong educator, passed away on August 4, 2022. She had resided in Annapolis since June of 1966 and considered it to be her "true home." Pamela was born on February 17, 1943, in Harrisburg, Pa., to the late Oscar William and Sue (Neighbors) Wolfe. At the age of three, she moved to Cumberland, Md., where she grew up and was an honor graduate of Allegany High School. Pamela went on to receive a B.A. in English/Education cum laude from Frostburg State University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Maryland College Park, which she considered to be one of her greatest achievements. While her children were young, she taught writing courses at the U.S. Naval Academy and Hood College, where she also provided tutoring and ran a writing center, and also taught courses in literature at Loyola University Maryland, Anne Arundel Community College, and Prince George's Community College. Pamela began her career as a writer in the business world when she was hired as a technical writer at Vitro Corporation, where she later became a proposal manager and writer and trained teams in the process of writing proposals. From Vitro, she moved on to be a proposal development manager at Price Waterhouse and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, where she led teams in writing proposals and trained them in the proposal development process that she developed. At IBM Corporation, she worked as a lead proposal writer and trained other writers globally. She also provided training in grammar and wrote a grammar blog. Simultaneous with her business career, she spent 20 years teaching a technical writing course each semester in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Maryland College Park. Pamela's great loves were literature, music, and the theatre. After her retirement from full-time work, she enjoyed attending weekend seminars at St. John's College and both attending and leading book discussions at Old Fox Books. She attended local theatre productions and was particularly fond of musicals. For many years, she attended productions of Shakespeare's plays in the Washington area, with a goal of seeing as many as she could on the stage. She also took great pride in her Victorian-era house in the historic district of Annapolis, which was always a work in progress. Pamela is survived by her daughter, Nicole Fickes, her husband Andy, and children Quinn and Laurel of Lancaster, Pa.; her son, Giles Roblyer, his wife Meredith, and children Nicholas and Lucas of Cincinnati, Ohio; her stepson, Allen Powell, his wife Millie, and children Bram and Brianne of Allen, Texas; her sisters, Marjorie Nassef of Atlanta, Ga., and Linda Keister of Worcester, Mass.; and her first husband and the father of her children, Michael Roblyer of Arnold. In addition to her parents, she was predeceased in 2005 by her second husband, Jerry Allen Powell, to whom she referred as "the person who made the biggest difference in my life." A Memorial Service will be held at the John M. Taylor Funeral Home 147 Duke of Gloucester Street, Annapolis, MD 21401 on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 11 AM followed by a Celebration of Life. In place of flowers, donations may be made to the Maryland Food Bank at mdfoodbank.org.