Services for Pamela Sue Dedricks Byklum
Fri, 01/05/2024 - 3:13pm
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Pamela Sue Dedricks Byklum
After a lifetime fight against the struggles of heart disease, Pamela Sue Dedricks Byklum passed peacefully on December 30, 2023 due to complications of her 4th heart surgery, the first of which dated back to her youth. While Pam, as she was known to all, lived with the complications of an enlarged heart, she was never defined by the affliction. She lived life with a zest that never mirrored her medical troubles.
Pam was a Christmas baby, born December 25, 1961 to parents Tom and Mary Dedricks. To ask Pam where she was from was a lesson in World Geography. From Northfield, MN to Atlanta, GA to Pittsburgh, PA, to El Paso Texas, to Taipei, Taiwan, to Seoul, South Korea to Rochester, MN, Pam was a citizen of the world. Her father’s work with General Instruments Corp. took the family on a long journey that eventually brought them back to the United States. Pam attended St. Olaf College in Northfield prior to her first teaching job in Seoul. To the delight of Daryl Byklum, she landed a teaching job in Rochester, MN the same year that he returned home to Minnesota and also got a job in Rochester after teaching in South Dakota.
Pam and Daryl were united in marriage, July 10. 1993. They both taught seventh grade social studies at John Adams Middle School in Rochester where both would finish out their teaching careers after 30+ years. For anyone who worked at or attended John Adams Middle School, they were simply known as “The Byklums.” If you attended John Adams as a 7th grader, you had a 2 out of 3 chances of having a Byklum for a social studies teacher. Confusion would sometimes ensue on student schedule day.
Besides loving her job as an educator, Pam was skilled at quilting and needlepoint. She left many masterful creations behind and always consulted husband Daryl as her fabric color-consultant. Unfortunately, he had no other skills in the craft.
She loved baseball and her Minnesota Twins but also followed the Minnesota Vikings and, much to Daryl’s amazement, loved NASCAR racing. She controlled the remote control on the television.
Pam was preceded in death by her mother Mary and her father-in-law, Harry Byklum.
She is survived by husband Daryl, formerly of Grygla, father Tom (Becky Phillips Dedricks), sisters Elizabeth (Kevin Cairns), Rebekah Dedricks, and Martha Dedricks. She is also survived by in-laws Dorothy Byklum, Lee and Marilyn Riegler, Brad and Kay Byklum, Bev and Jay Martinson, and Dennis and Linda Byklum. Numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and other relatives also survive.
The family is thankful to Mayo Clinic for the excellent care provided to Pam and the talented, dedicated, and compassionate staff that we met along the way.