Pam Engel stopped suffering Tuesday when she succumbed to pneumonia related to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). She was 72.

Pam was first and foremost a mother, to the late Peter Harbage (Sacramento, CA) and Ryan Harbage (Brooklyn, NY). She worked for many years as a billing supervisor for the law firm of Harness Dickey, where her retirement ended after nine months because she returned to work. In the 1980s and 90s, she was an integral volunteer at the Troy Athens Senior All Night Party and was a regular aid to Boy Scout Troop 1707 and the Cub Scouts; she also coached in the Troy Youth Soccer League. She was a prolific, prodigious greeting card maker and giver.

All remember Pam as a nurturer, especially her surviving family members, co-workers, and many childhood friends of Peter and Ryan, to whom she was often a second mother. She was kind and giving, intelligent and diligent, patient and tolerant, a feminist and pacifist, who instilled in her children a commitment to service and compassion. 

Pam was diagnosed with AML nearly eleven months ago and soon after moved to Brooklyn to live with her son and grandchildren and get treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering. 

Pam was preceded in death by her sister Pat Taylor, husband Ken Engel, and son Peter, the latter from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She is survived by her brother Keith Taylor, son Ryan, grandchildren Evan and Jane, step-sons Steve and Ken, and step-grandchildren Sophie, Alex, Andy, and Kyle. She had many nieces and nephews. 

Born in 1949 in McKeesport, PA to a Quaker father and Catholic mother, she was raised on her family’s ancestral farm and as a girl had a horse named Midnight. She attended nursing school at the University of Pittsburgh and left early to become a housewife. Later she earned a degree at Detroit College of Business.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to The Peter Harbage Fellowship, the American Leukemia Society, and/or Food Not Bombs. 

Pam will be missed by all who knew her.