Abbey Atkinson Memorial Remembrance Service

On Sunday, May 16, 2010, friends and family gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie, 7180 New Perry Highway, Erie PA to celebrate the life and memory of Abbey Atkinson, who died on April 19, 2010 at the age of 32. Abbey had been president of Trigon, the Penn State Behrend LGBT student group and had organized many events, including the hugely successful 2002 and 2003 Pride Weekends. She was preparing to take her bar exam in Florida after having graduated law school. She was unfailingly kind, cheerful and selfless.

Photos are by Deb Spilko for Erie Gay News. Abbey's memorial page on Facebook is at http://www.facebook.com/TheAbbeyAtkinsonMemorial

from Penn State's The OUTrider, vol 6 no 2, April - August 2003:

Marshal Scholarship Provides Support, Recognition for LGBT Students

by: Beverly Molnar

For Abbey Atkinson, a Penn State Erie senior and New York native, receiving the Barry H. Marshal Undergraduate Scholarship means so much more than being able to pay off college expenses.

"It means so much to me to actually be recognized for the work I've done in the GLBT community," she says. "I don't dare put most of these accomplishments on my résumé, and while Penn State Erie does recognize the work of student organizations, there's nothing specifically for GLBT students."

Indeed, the Marshal Scholarship is the first of its kind at Penn State-a scholarship specifically for students who are involved with the University's LGBTA community. In fact, when Barry Marshal '65, a semiretired businessman in New York City, decided to establish an undergraduate scholarship in 2000, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind.

"I just wanted to do something to help ease the burden for out-of-state students, because I was one and I know how expensive it can get," he says. "But Susan Sutton (the development officer with whom Barry worked at the time) suggested I designate the award for someone with common interests and lifestyle. As a gay person, I thought it made perfect sense to establish a scholarship for a native New Yorker who has made significant contributions to the LGBTA community."

Abbey certainly fills the bill. She was born in East Hampton, on Long Island, and lived in several areas of New York City as well as other parts of the Northeast while growing up. She had lived in Miami, Florida, for ten years when she decided to move back north to attend college in 1998.

"By that time, I was a single mother and realized that if I wanted to create any kind of life for my daughter, I would have to get a college degree. I heard good things about Penn State's program for returning adults, and chose Erie because I preferred a larger, city campus." Activism has always come naturally to Abbey, who became involved with Greenpeace as a teenager.

"My first experience with activism at Penn State Erie was lobbying to keep my daughter's on-campus childcare center from being closed," she says. "While helping with that effort, I spent quite a bit of time at the Returning Adult Student Organization, which happens to share office space with Trigon," the support organization for gay students at Penn State Erie. That proved to be a turning point for Abbey.

"While I knew from a young age that I was a lesbian, I went through an identity crisis of sorts, due to my family's unwillingness to accept my sexual orientation," she explains. A brief heterosexual relationship ensued, during which Abbey became pregnant with her daughter.

"When I first came to Erie, she was 2 years old, and I struggled with the question of whether to raise her as a gay parent," Abbey continues. "Talking to the folks in Trigon helped me come to terms with who I was, and helped me make the decision not to deny my true self to my daughter or anyone else."

It also gave Abbey a new outlet for her activist nature. In 1999, she became president of the organization and has served in that capacity ever since.

As the "face of Trigon," she's organized the college's annual Safer Sex Cabaret and the hugely successful Erie County Pride Rally; fostered communication between the gay community and other campus groups; sponsored a variety of speakers and entertainers on campus; and given presentations on tolerance, nondiscrimination, coming out, and other matters of importance to LGBTA students. She's led Trigon's participation in such activities as the National Day of Silence and World AIDS Day. In short, she's become a strong voice for the gay population both on campus and in the larger local and global community. Abbey seems to be just the sort of person Barry had in mind when he established the scholarship.

"For me, it isn't as important that the recipient be a straight-A student as it is that they be someone for whom the money would really make a difference, so that they could in turn make a difference in the lives of others," he says.

The $1,000 scholarship will be presented to Abbey during the annual Commission on LGBT Equity Award Night and Lavender Graduation Ceremony, to be held April 25 at Penn State University Park. Barry plans to be there.

"Plus, the Blue-White Game is the next day," says Barry, a true-blue alumnus who is a lifetime member of the Penn State Alumni Association as well as a member of the Penn State Club of New York. "It should be a great weekend!" Barry and his partner, Larry Duran, are both avid Nittany Lions football fans who make several annual trips back to University Park.

"Larry's not a Penn State alum, but I've converted him now he bleeds blue and white!"

For Abbey, the weekend will also mark a more bittersweet milestone: the end of her Penn State career. What does the future hold for this General Arts and Sciences major?

"I'll probably take a year off to do public advocacy work for human-rights causes," she says.

"After that I'd like to go to graduate school and eventually teach at the college level." Whatever path she chooses, Abbey's determined can-do spirit and strong dedication to her ideals are sure signs she'll go far.