Pamela Atkinson

Pamela Joan Collin Atkinson was born on February 9, 1933, in Bromley, Kent, England, the third of five children. Her father raced greyhounds and gambled away his earnings, then abandoned the family. Her mother, Johannah Bye, worked any job she could find to support her two sons and three daughters. The family went hungry, lacked indoor plumbing, and Atkinson delivered newspapers as a child to help.

She was about 7 when the London Blitz began. She sheltered from air raids underground and was then evacuated to the countryside with a sister, where they were safer but made to feel unwelcome. Her daughter Heather Hooper later said, "She knew what it was to be unwanted and impoverished, with no one to encourage her."

A local librarian set books aside for her, becoming her first mentor. Atkinson said she decided at 14 that she would get a great education.

After high school Atkinson won one of 40 places at a nursing school in London. She later continued her training at University College Hospital. In the United States she earned a bachelor's degree in nursing, with a minor in criminology, from the University of California, and a master's degree from the University of Washington, where she studied sociology, business and education while teaching nursing and management leadership. In 2024 the University of Utah recognized her among its honorary degree recipients.

In 1958 Atkinson came to the United States on an exchange visa and worked at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where she was promoted to assistant head nurse. After returning to England she moved to Australia and worked for about two years on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, in labor and delivery, sometimes sailing to other islands to provide care. She then worked at a hospital in Philadelphia and a medical center in San Francisco.

She left direct patient care to help run LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, spent a brief period at a San Diego hospital, and returned to Intermountain Health, where she became vice president over mission services, overseeing humanitarian programs. She helped establish the Lincoln Family Health Center and Rose Park Family Health Center, both based in elementary schools, and an Intermountain Neighborhood Clinic.

Atkinson advised four Utah governors: Mike Leavitt, Jon Huntsman, Gary Herbert and Spencer Cox. She served for a decade on the Utah State Board of Regents and on the State Homeless Coordinating Committee, Envision Utah, the State Refugee Advisory Board, the Utah College of Applied Technology Board and the Deseret News editorial board. She chaired the Utah Coalition Against Pornography. When the National Center for Youth Law sued Utah over its foster care system, she served as the agreed tie-breaker on the court-mandated oversight panel. She also sat on corporate boards, including BMW Bank of North America, and used those fees for what she called her "God-wants-me-to-help-others" fund.

For decades Atkinson visited people living in camps along the Jordan River and near Salt Lake City's underpasses, carrying socks, gloves, blankets, food and bags of dog food for people who avoided shelters because their dogs were not allowed. She gave out her personal phone number and was often the first call charities made when they ran short. She paid to kennel a dog so its owner could get medical care, and she spoke at the funerals of homeless friends as well as prominent ones. Former State Sen. Karen Hale said, "Pamela was in the trenches." Michelle Flynn of The Road Home called her "a people person" rather than a policy person.

Atkinson married and had three children, Roger, Sally and Heather. She and her husband later divorced. She lived in Salt Lake City, kept toys and small chairs at home for her great-grandchildren, and was known to family as mom, grandma Pamela or GP. Her daughter recalled her rising early on Saturdays to bring three dozen bagels for Hooper's six sons.

Atkinson was a longtime elder of First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City. She often spoke of "holy nudges" and the occasional "holy shove" prompting her to help someone. She worked closely across faith lines, including with H. David Burton of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and said she never let differences in politics or religion get in the way of friendship. In 2026 she convened a roundtable of Utah faith leaders and policymakers on the theme "What Would Jesus Do?", which she described as possibly her final assignment.

Atkinson's name is attached to the Pamela Atkinson Homeless Trust Fund, which Utahns can support on their state tax form, the Pamela Atkinson Fourth Street Clinic, Pamela's Place transitional housing, and the Pamela Atkinson Resource Center for men in South Salt Lake. First Presbyterian Church runs a "Pamela's Closet" to collect supplies. Governor Spencer Cox called her "one of the greatest champions of Utah's homelessness."

Atkinson received the Jack Gallivan Legacy Award from the Utah Housing Coalition in 2011 and was among the University of Utah's 2024 honorary degree recipients. Several Utah homeless services facilities and the state homeless trust fund were named for her while she was living.

Atkinson had been frail and ill in her final years and was hospitalized in April 2026. She died on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at the age of 93. Her cause of death has not been made public. Some early reports gave her age as 94, but her birth date of February 9, 1933, makes her 93. A funeral service will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City at 11 a.m. on October 30, 2026.