PAMELA DEE ALESKY

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Edinboro University

PAMELA ALESKY Obituary

Name: Celebration of Life for PAMELA DEE ALESKY
Start: 2024-10-05T18:00:00.000Z
End: 2024-10-05T20:00:00.000Z
Location: Green Gables

Pamela Dee Alesky
Pamela Dee Alesky passed away at INOVA Hospital Alexandria, VA on May 29, 2024 after a long and courageous battle with lung cancer with her family by her side. Pam was born September 25, 1959 at Montrose General Hospital (Endless Mountains Health System). She was predeceased by her maternal grandparents Gustav Adolf Thomas and Dorothy Stephens Thomas and paternal grandparents Peter (Pete) Anthony and Gertrude Allen Alesky, parents, Harold James and Barbara Thomas Alesky and brother-in-law John Lynn. She is survived by her sisters Diana Alesky White of Gibson, PA; Monica Alesky Lynn of Hollywood, MD; her nieces Marissa Lynn Schmid (Major Joseph Schmid), Rachel Lynn, Mariah White, nephew Christopher White, and her beloved cats Velcro and Basil.
Pam graduated from Mountain View High School of Class 1977. She attended Edinboro University with BA in Political Science, master's in communications and political science, and doctorate studies from Syracuse University. She was very determined and fearless in all she pursued in life. She enjoyed biking, skiing, and traveling. She explored history and culture traveling to 26 countries. She spent her early life as a volunteer firefighter with the Edinboro Fire Department in Edinboro, PA and working for the American Red Cross. She had a rewarding career taking her from Edinboro, PA to Alexandria, VA where she joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and then ended her government career at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Pam's last generous contribution was to science with Anatomy Gifts Donation www.anatomygifts.org. It was a gift in death to help others with the research of lung cancer. She showed great strength and resilience in beating lung cancer, but succumbed to metastatic brain tumors after 11 years.
Family and friends are invited to A Celebration of Life to be held at the Green Gables Restaurant, New Milford, PA on Saturday October 5, 2024 from 2-4 PM.
Memorial donations may be made to the Edinboro University (Pam Alesky Endowment), King Street Cats. www.kingstreetcats.org, and American Lung Cancer Society https://action.lung.org/.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Susquehanna County Independent from Aug. 19 to Sep. 6, 2024.

Memories and Condolences
for PAMELA ALESKY

1 Entry

Elaine

May 27, 2025

I posted the following on Facebook in June 2024, shortly after Paul (mutual friend) told me about Pam's passing.

This post is about my friend Pam A. We were in the same department in grad school at a university in upstate New York many years ago.
Yesterday evening, a mutual friend* of ours called to tell me that Pam had died several weeks ago. It was a surprise/not a surprise. You see, Pam was a survivor of lung cancer (no, she wasn't a smoker) and later a brain tumor. Apparently (details are few), the cancer had recurred. She was a cancer survivor until she wasn't.
Enough of that. This post is about how she lived, not how she died.
Pam was a cat person. Sometimes, she shared her home with a couple of cats; most recently, she had one kitty, Velcro. In recent years, the little guy (actually, he was a pretty hefty fellow) was diabetic, so Pam had to give him injections. She told me that he would come to her and patiently allow her to administer the injection. (It was a blessing that Velcro willingly submitted to the injections as Pam's cancer treatment eventually affected her balance and mobility significantly.)
Pam was an avid downhill skier and cyclist! She belonged to two ski clubs and enjoyed going on numerous ski trips and cycling trips. I remember, in particular, a cycling and barge trip she took with her ski club in the Netherlands. Pam recounted the pleasures of cycling all day/most of the day, then returning "home" to the barge for the night. And while back on the barge, Pam indulged in her another of her favorite pastimes: drinking beer.
Following grad school, Pam worked for a couple of federal agencies, but I think her employment with and volunteering for the American Red Cross really reflected who she was. She was called to serve others. Though it's notable that she was employed by the headquarters of the American Red Cross for several years, she had volunteered with the Red Cross for decades, serving her local community but also deploying to disaster areas. (I'm looking at you, Florida---Pam told me about a disaster-related deployment to the Sunshine State that enabled her to enjoy as much Key Lime pie as she wanted).
As Pam knew, I'm not a beer drinker. So, in lieu of hosting a mug of beer, I'll raise a glass of wine this evening to toast my friend.
*A note of thanks to our mutual friend, Paul, who called me yesterday and reminded me that Pam had had a good life.

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