Pamela Gras Ryan (1960-2021) was born on this day, 62 years ago. The following tribute to Pam was written by her sister, Jane (Gras) Heigis. Pam and Jane are the great-great-granddaughters of John Culbert and Mary Ward.
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| Pamela (Gras) Ryan |
Pamela Gras was born on February 13, 1960 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. She was the youngest of four children born to Alfred Edward Gras and Jean (Simonds) Gras.
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| Baby Pam in 1960 with her family. Clockwise, left to right: Father Alfred Edward Gras; sister Suzanne; sister Jane; mother Jean; baby Pam, and brother Peter. |
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| Gras siblings in 1962. Left to right: Jane, Pam, Peter and Sue. |
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| Gras siblings in 2015. Left to right: Jane, Sue, Peter and Pam. |
Pam graduated from the University of Vermont in 1984 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and went on to Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts to earn her Master’s Degree.
During that time she designed and developed “Pam’s Anatomical Puppets”. Each soft-sculptured custom hand-sewn life-size (4 year old) puppet was designed to be used in a health care setting for educational and therapeutic play. The body opened up - via Velcro – to all the major organs, sewn in their proportional size and removable. The legs even unzipped to reveal the bones. Her Dad (a medical doctor) took her to see various autopsies so she could get first-hand knowledge of how to make it all anatomically correct.
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| One of Pam's Anatomical Puppets. |
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| Pam’s nephew
Peter Heigis and the puppet have a laugh together. |
Pam loved people and made many friends over the years as the #1 salesperson in a local jewelry store. She gave every customer her complete attention and many became good friends.
Her motto in life was LIVE, LAUGH, and LOVE. She always had a smile and was keen to try anything.
Her wedding with Robert "Bob" Ryan of Plattsburg, New York on September 25, 2004 was typical of how she did things. Because they couldn’t have the ceremony on some exotic island, she chose her family summer property on the shores of Lake Champlain (South Hero, Vermont) to have the ceremony at water’s edge with everyone sporting a Hawaiian lei. Her dog at the time (one of many Golden Retrievers over the years) was the “ring bearer”.
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| Pam and Bob's wedding on Lake Champlain, Vermont. |
Pam’s dogs over the years were her kids and all got treated to birthday parties and dress-ups on holidays. One even had a wedding with a friend’s dog.
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| Sophie and Denver. |
For a number of years after "Sophie" got her therapy dog certification, Pam and Sophie visited nursing homes and made weekly visits to a local elementary school 4th grade and special education classes for “read to a dog” lessons. Eventually Pam and Sophie founded the “Northern Adirondack Love-on-a-Leash Therapy Pet” chapter in Plattsburg, New York.
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| Pam, Sophie, and Bob. |
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| Pam and Sophie do a "read to a dog" lesson with 4th graders. |
In 2010 Pam and her husband Bob organized a Polar Plunge with the goal to raise $100,000 for Special Olympics. Ten years later and ten very cold quick dashes into the icy waters of Lake Champlain, they had exceeded their goal and raised $114,000.
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| Polar Plunge fund raising. |
Breast cancer hit Pam in 2011 and she battled it for 10 years with surgeries and chemotherapy. She changed her motto to “Live, Laugh, Love and Thrive”. But when it metastasized she was determined to follow her dream of living the RV Life. She and Bob sold their house, bought a beautiful large motorhome, outfitted it with a trailer to carry their car and Harley motorcycles, and took off to experience the USA. Unfortunately she lost her battle on October 11, 2021, but she did get to live out that dream for a couple of months.
Thank you, Jane, for writing this tribute to your sister. In closing, here is a photo from my collection...
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| Mary Jane Culbert of Canada (me, on the left) with my 2nd cousin, Pam Gras, fishing on Lake Champlain in Vermont, USA, c1967. Pam and I shared the same set of great-grandparents, Richard Culbert and Jane Fairhall. |
Pamela (Gras) Ryan’s Family Tree:
Ancestors:
John Culbert & Mary Ward (great-great-grandparents)
Richard Culbert & Jane Eleanor Fairhall (great-grandparents)
Ethel Gertrude Culbert & Norman Scott Brien Gras (grandparents)
Alfred Edward Gras & Jean Simonds (parents)
Pamela (Gras) Ryan
No Descendants.
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