Anne Marie Pecht

Anne Marie Rompalske Pecht

June 6, 1956 - April 3, 2016

Potomac, MD

Anne Marie Rompalske Pecht of Potomac, Maryland, passed away on Sunday, April 3, 2016. She was born in New York City to the late Richard Rompalske and Hannah "Joan" Rompalske, on June 6, 1956.

Anne Marie moved with her family to Raleigh in 1969, where she attended Broughton High School before graduating from Cardinal Gibbons High in 1974. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until a serious spinal cord injury she suffered while a student there led her to return to Raleigh, where she enrolled at NC State University, graduating with a BS in Economics and a 4.0 grade point average, sharing the award for highest scholastic achievement in the School of Humanities.

In 1979, Anne Marie married her high school sweetheart, Forrest James Pecht, "Jim", and they moved to the West Coast where she earned a Master's degree in public policy analysis from the University of California at Berkeley. A gifted scholar, who never let her disability stand in the way of her passion to achieve, she once again graduated near the top of her class, and was accepted to study law at UNC Chapel Hill, Stanford, Harvard and Yale. She chose Yale, where she served as an editor at the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Law & Policy Review. After earning her JD, she and Jim moved to the Washington D.C. metro area, where she worked in the commercial real estate section of the law firm of Shaw Pittman Potts & Trowbridge.

In 1991, Anne Marie's career took a meaningful turn when she accepted a position as an attorney in the Disability Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division, of the US Department of Justice. At the DOJ, she helped enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, negotiating several important settlement agreements. She would be recognized in 1996 for her career success and service by the Pool College at NC State, with the prestigious Alumni of the Year Award at its annual recognition celebration, the Evening of the Stars.

Anne Marie retired from the Department of Justice in 2013 and planned to enjoy her hobbies and travel with the love of her life, Jim. She is survived by her husband, Jim, her sisters Dorothy Rompalske and Lorraine Rompalske Kelley, her mother, Joan Rompalske, and numerous loving aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

Funeral Services will be held at Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church at 2718 Overbrook Drive, Raleigh, NC, 27608, Saturday, April 9, 2016 at 2pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to "Canine Companions for Independence" at http://www.cci.org/site/c.cdKGIRNqEmG/b.3978475/k.BED8/Home.htm.