Pamela Duran Gau

Pamela Duran Gau passed away peacefully Wednesday afternoon after a courageous 14-year battle with primary pulmonary hypertension. During a life lived in Chicago, Champaign IL, Norman OK, Vancouver BC, and Austin, Pam found both adventure and tranquility, artfully blending a love of flying with the more familiar rewards of raising a family. She was born July 19, 1949, in Chicago and spent childhood weekends navigating the competing passions of her family: her father's side loved the Cubs, while her mother's side was devoted to the White Sox. Young Pam maintained complete neutrality, enjoying frequent ballgames with both sets of grandparents. While she remained uninfluenced when it came to baseball, she inherited a love of flying from her father, a pilot in the Marines who flew in World War II. During college at the University of Illinois, Pam took flying lessons and eventually became a flight instructor. She achieved commercial, instrument and multi-engine flight ratings and trained several current airline pilots. A few years later, in 1977, she and a partner won a regional first place prize in the last "Powder Puff Derby," a women's cross-country airplane race dating back to 1929 that took them from North Carolina to California over several days. With George, her husband of nearly 37 years, Pam raised two sons, Brendan and Andy, in Vancouver and Austin. As a young mother, Pam left flying behind and channeled her creative energies into weaving rugs and other tapestries on a large loom that took over her dining room for a time. She later turned her attention to a teaching career, including seven years at Kocurek Elementary School in Austin as a fifth grade math and science teacher. Because of her illness, Pam retired from teaching in 1995 and became involved in volunteer activities, serving as President and Treasurer of the University Ladies Club. Pam was also an active golfer, an enthusiastic traveler and a prolific bridge player. Even in the earliest days of the Internet, she and a high school friend in Chicago would carry on long-distance bridge games online. But her greatest passion at the end of her life was her grandchildren: Evelyn Faith Gau, 2, and Paul William Gau, who was born in December. Pam is survived by George W. Gau, the former dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin; her son, Brendan, his wife Martha Gau, and their children, Evelyn and Paul, of Houston; her son, Andy, of Houston; her father, Arthur Duran, of Lindale, Texas; her brother, Jack Duran, and his wife, Lynn, of Sacramento, Calif.; and her brother, Jim Duran, and his wife, Robin, of West Palm Beach, Fla. The family will receive friends from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home. A celebration of Pam's life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 1, 2009 at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home in Austin. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the University Ladies Club Scholarship Fund, http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/ladies/scholarships.php.