Melissa Burdick Harmon died on November 26, 2025 at her home in Borrego Springs, California. She was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to John and Jean (Robacker) Burdick, and was the wife of James Harmon, a high school history teacher. She was 75 years old.
Melissa grew up in Newfoundland, a village in the Pocono Mountains, where her father owned the local feed store, the hub of the community, and her mother was a nurse. Her love of musical theatre started early. Two summers running, she and her sister and friends produced an All Star Variety Show on the back porch that town folks bought tickets to see. And she saved her allowance for the movies. Musicals like GIGI and SOUTH PACIFIC changed her life.
She inherited a hunger to see the world from her father, who would take the family on "excursions" during the four days of the year that he stepped away from the feed store. She studied NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC for places she wanted to see when she grew up.
As second ranked in her class at Wallenpaupack Area High School, Melissa went on to graduate Wilkes College with a degree in English education, but she resolved never to become a teacher. Instead, at age 22, she left the peace and security of her village and moved to New York City, where RCA Records hired her as a proofreader because she could read German, Spanish, and French. She was soon promoted to write record album liner notes, interviewing stars like Willie Nelson and John Denver.
Next, she worked for a number of public relations firms and completed a master's degree in English at Columbia Unitversity. While doing PR with the American Cancer Society, she decided to start seeing the wide world as a freelance travel writer.
She began by writing for the magazine SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS, which paid for her and a freelance photographer to travel the globe to places with extravagant event spaces where companies could hold their annual meetings. The magazine sent her to places such as Hawaii, the Caribbean and Mediterranean, Australia and Argentina. In between freelance assignments, she edited briefs for Coudert Brothers law firm in midtown Manhattan. It was through her boss there that she met her future husband, Jim.
Melissa accepted assignments from BIOGRAPHY magazine, which sent her even farther afield to write about a well known person and the milieu in which he/she grew up and worked: Gandhi's India, Giacomo Puccini's Lucca, Napoleon's Paris, and Earnest Shackleton's Antartica among many others. In the summers, her teacher-husband travelled with her. Eventually she became BIOGRAPHY's travel editor. She also relented on her vow not to teach, accepting a position as an adjunct instructor at New York University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Her love of musical theatre stayed with her from those summer productions on the back porch of her Newfoundland home. Living in Manhattan, she usually found a way to walk over to Broadway to see at least two shows a week. She signed on as an usher at FORBIDDEN BROADWAY and ended up as its executive producer.
As far afield as she travelled, her roots kept her grounded. On a boat to Antartica (the Shackleton expedition assignment) she met two strangers who just happened to be from Newfoundland, Pa. They had known her parents well and were still living in the town. Even at the end of the world she found Newfoundland.
Melissa was a regional officer of SATW (Society of American Travel Writers) and a long time member of IABC (The International Association of Business Communicators).
Melissa could find the silver lining, the adventure, the humor in any situation as her numerous friends attested throughout her life. She was a regular Church goer and person of faith as was revealed by her acceptance without rancour or bitterness of her thirteen years' suffering from Alzheimer's. She lost everything without complaint.
She is survived by her husband and her sister Jean Moody. One day her ashes will be returned to Newfoundland where they will be buried.
See Melissa's article "Roots and Wings: Remembering Newfoundland"
Melissa grew up in Newfoundland, a village in the Pocono Mountains, where her father owned the local feed store, the hub of the community, and her mother was a nurse. Her love of musical theatre started early. Two summers running, she and her sister and friends produced an All Star Variety Show on the back porch that town folks bought tickets to see. And she saved her allowance for the movies. Musicals like GIGI and SOUTH PACIFIC changed her life.
She inherited a hunger to see the world from her father, who would take the family on "excursions" during the four days of the year that he stepped away from the feed store. She studied NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC for places she wanted to see when she grew up.
As second ranked in her class at Wallenpaupack Area High School, Melissa went on to graduate Wilkes College with a degree in English education, but she resolved never to become a teacher. Instead, at age 22, she left the peace and security of her village and moved to New York City, where RCA Records hired her as a proofreader because she could read German, Spanish, and French. She was soon promoted to write record album liner notes, interviewing stars like Willie Nelson and John Denver.
Next, she worked for a number of public relations firms and completed a master's degree in English at Columbia Unitversity. While doing PR with the American Cancer Society, she decided to start seeing the wide world as a freelance travel writer.
She began by writing for the magazine SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS, which paid for her and a freelance photographer to travel the globe to places with extravagant event spaces where companies could hold their annual meetings. The magazine sent her to places such as Hawaii, the Caribbean and Mediterranean, Australia and Argentina. In between freelance assignments, she edited briefs for Coudert Brothers law firm in midtown Manhattan. It was through her boss there that she met her future husband, Jim.
Melissa accepted assignments from BIOGRAPHY magazine, which sent her even farther afield to write about a well known person and the milieu in which he/she grew up and worked: Gandhi's India, Giacomo Puccini's Lucca, Napoleon's Paris, and Earnest Shackleton's Antartica among many others. In the summers, her teacher-husband travelled with her. Eventually she became BIOGRAPHY's travel editor. She also relented on her vow not to teach, accepting a position as an adjunct instructor at New York University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Her love of musical theatre stayed with her from those summer productions on the back porch of her Newfoundland home. Living in Manhattan, she usually found a way to walk over to Broadway to see at least two shows a week. She signed on as an usher at FORBIDDEN BROADWAY and ended up as its executive producer.
As far afield as she travelled, her roots kept her grounded. On a boat to Antartica (the Shackleton expedition assignment) she met two strangers who just happened to be from Newfoundland, Pa. They had known her parents well and were still living in the town. Even at the end of the world she found Newfoundland.
Melissa was a regional officer of SATW (Society of American Travel Writers) and a long time member of IABC (The International Association of Business Communicators).
Melissa could find the silver lining, the adventure, the humor in any situation as her numerous friends attested throughout her life. She was a regular Church goer and person of faith as was revealed by her acceptance without rancour or bitterness of her thirteen years' suffering from Alzheimer's. She lost everything without complaint.
She is survived by her husband and her sister Jean Moody. One day her ashes will be returned to Newfoundland where they will be buried.
See Melissa's article "Roots and Wings: Remembering Newfoundland"
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