Alyce Catherine Raymond, an active resident of Pacific Palisades since 1967, passed away on July 29 from complications related to colon cancer. She was 79. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Alyce was the youngest of four children. Her parents were among the founders of Our Lady of Czestochowa Catholic Church there. Alyce attended Lincoln High School, where she was student body treasurer. After graduation, she studied at Barbizon College and became a catalog and runway model for some of New York City’s leading fashion houses. She later worked as a buyer for Jonathan Logan, specializing in coats. In 1950, Alyce married Joseph Raymond, a student at Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia. During his studies, she trained as a healthcare professional at Hahneman University Hospital. With her husband, she established and ran his first general practice in Scotch Plains, NJ, a role she would continue to play through their marriage. In 1959, Alyce and Joseph spent six months traveling in Europe by car. The trip changed her life and thereafter she traveled widely’and always with her family’to the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Asia. Alyce had her first child, Anthea, at age 33, in 1959. Soon after came Toby (in 1960), Zachary (in 1961), Briony (in 1962), Melissa (in 1964) and Joshua (in 1965). The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1959 for Joseph’s pathology residency at UCLA and lived in the Westwood and Mar Vista areas during this time. The family returned to New Jersey briefly, but came back to Southern California permanently in September 1967 to live on Kagawa Street in the Palisades. They later moved to Pampas Ricas in the Huntington Palisades and finally to the Riviera. In 1975, Alyce helped her husband establish a family medical practice in the Palisades, which she managed until the mid-1990s, when Joseph retired. Joseph was honored as Pacific Palisades Citizen of the Year in 1977. But it was Alyce, her husband always said, who made this possible, as well as his career as a practitioner of family medicine and associate dean at the UCLA Medical School. Alyce was a strong advocate for higher education, and encouraged all her children to study at the graduate level, which they did, accumulating 10 graduate degrees among the six of them. In her later years, Alyce was active in the Westside Committee of the L.A. Philharmonic Association, the UCLA Medical Faculty Wives, and the UCLA Medical Center Women’s Auxiliary, serving as an officer for each group. She also continued to own and manage commercial property in Pacific Palisades and Yucca. In September 2004, Alyce, Joseph and four of their children spent two weeks in the Abruzzi region of Italy. Alyce’s children take pride in the fact that their mother passed away on the day a 10th planet was discovered in our solar system. Joseph also noted the coincidence of the ground-breaking cabaret singer Hildegard’s death. In addition to her husband of 55, Alyce is survived by six children, two grandchildren, and two sons-in-law as well as the many people she touched in her roles as mother, homemaker, community leader, and local businesswoman. Funeral services will be held today at 10 a.m. at Corpus Christi Church, with a reception to follow at the family’s Palisades home at 1:30 p.m. A scholarship fund has been created through UCLA Medical School. Please make checks to UC Regents/Alyce Raymond Scholarship and mail to 15332 Antioch St. (#536), Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.
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