Amy Gage Skallerup

Amy graduated from Camp Hill (PA) High School and Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in Pittsburgh, PA. She received MA and PhD degrees in botany from Washington University, St. Louis. While at Washington University, Amy created the (uncredited) pen-and-ink illustrations for Introgressive Hybridization, a groundbreaking book about plant genetics written by one of her professors.

Also at Washington University, Amy met her future husband, Harry R. Skallerup, a fellow graduate student. They married in 1952 and soon moved to Minneapolis, where Amy worked as a research assistant in plant cytology and Harry completed a degree in library science. Later they lived in Illinois, New York, Iowa, Maryland, and Florida as Harry moved up the ranks as an academic librarian. Along the way, they had three children—Thomas, Susan, and Janet—and a variety of unhuggable pets, including a sphinxlike chameleon, a reclusive gerbil, and two demure hermit crabs.

As was common for mothers in the 1950s and ’60s, Amy devoted herself to parenting when her children were young, but she eventually eased back into the world of work by freelancing as a copyeditor and book indexer. In the 1970s, she was employed full-time by the Maryland Department of Legislative Reference in Annapolis as a librarian and indexer and also indexed books for the Naval Institute Press. Following a move to Florida in 1978, she was a science editor at CRC Press (later part of Taylor & Francis) in Boca Raton for many years.

After retirement, Amy volunteered at a local public library and learned to use a pottery wheel to craft eye-catching pots and vases. Additionally, she continued to pursue her lifelong hobbies of gardening, reading, knitting, and sewing, often creating elaborate Halloween costumes for her grandchildren, custom-making sweaters in the recipients’ favorite colors, and tending her myriad gardens and houseplants. She liked nothing better than reading a good murder mystery.

Following her husband’s death, Amy returned to Maryland to be near her remaining family and spent several peaceful years enjoying frequent in-person visits from her children and grandchildren.

Survivors include her devoted daughters, Susan Stokes (Brad) of Frederick and Janet Scappini (Robert) of Gettysburg, PA; her devoted daughter-in-law, Deirdre Clarkin; and six adored grandchildren: William Skallerup, John Scappini (Nora Schneider), Emma Esders (Chris), Allison Stokes, Caroline Stokes (Melissa Vincent), and Thomas Scappini (Wynona). Amy was predeceased by her husband, Harry; her son, Thomas; and her grandson, Matthew Stokes, as well as her siblings, Richard K. Gage, Norman E. Gage, and Elsie Gage Balano.

Memorial donations may be made to Chatham University or the National Resources Defense Council. No local services are planned