Linda Anne Slyer

Linda Anne Slyer was a database administrator from Troy, New York, who spent more than three decades working for General Electric in Schenectady. She died on October 30, 2026, at the age of 79, following what her family described as a long illness.

Slyer was born on May 2, 1947, in Albany, New York, to John and Helen Bush. She attended the University at Albany, graduating in 1969, and from there moved into a career in information technology that would define her working life.

She spent her entire professional career at General Electric in Schenectady, where she worked as a database administrator for more than 30 years. <cite index="1-1">At a time when women were underrepresented in technology, Linda distinguished herself as a leader of an otherwise all-male team.</cite> Colleagues and family remembered her as rigorous and demanding of herself above all, a trait that carried through from her work into the rest of her life.

After retiring from General Electric, Slyer shifted her energy toward travel, a pursuit her family said she took up with the same enthusiasm she had brought to her career. <cite index="1-1">Fiercely independent and a perfectionist in the truest sense, Linda believed that anything worth doing was worth doing well.</cite> Family members noted, with affection, that she rarely sat still or asked for help, always finding something that needed doing, at least until it was time for happy hour.

Slyer is survived by her son, Jason Slyer, and son-in-law, Les Hopkins, as well as her sisters Deborah Bush-Suflita and Sandra Berthold, her aunt Carolyn Bielewa, and extended family. No specific cause of death has been made public beyond the family's reference to a long illness. In keeping with her wishes, the family is gathering privately to celebrate her life rather than holding a public funeral or memorial service, and no public memorial has been announced as of this writing.

Linda Slyer was not a nationally known public figure, and the public record of her life rests chiefly on the obituary published by her family. Within her own professional sphere in New York's Capital Region, she was remembered as a pioneering presence in a field that, for much of her career, offered few women the chance to lead a team.