Obituary of Kamilla Way

Kamilla Way, beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family in State College, PA on March 3, 2023. Kamilla was born in Steiermark, Austria on February 5th, 1933, the daughter of Franz and Maria Fast.

Kamilla attended university in Vienna and shortly after joined the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker global peace organization, where she met her husband,Ralph Way. They married in Vienna before returning to the US together on the Queen Mary. Together, Ralph and Kamilla built and developed many neighborhoods in State College, in addition to building the Way Townhouses and the Friends Meeting House. Perhaps their greatest contribution to State College was founding and building Foxdale Village Retirement Community. Their work expanded beyond State College when in 1972 they moved their family to Zambia, Africa to complete a two-year housing and school project. In addition, Kamilla served on the board of Housing Transitions further contributing to her lifelong dream of equitable housing for all.

Despite her many achievements, Kamilla considered her greatest to be her family. She is survived by her husband Ralph; her three children Andrew Way (Cindy), Ingrid Thompson (Michael) and Ericka Way-Ahn (James), along with her seven grandchildren; Amanda, Kelsey, Kyle, Loryn, Colby, Ryan and Rachel and six great-grandchildren; Lucy, Wendy, Oliver, Brayden, Reagan and Cooper. She also leaves behind many extended family members and lifelong friends, whom she loved dearly.

Kamilla was a visionary who dreamed big. She viewed the world through a lens of optimism and believed "everything will work out." Her life modeled hard work in service to others. The lessons that she taught us will live on forever.

A Quaker Memorial Meeting will be held in the Foxdale Auditorium at 2:00 pm on Saturday, March 18, 2023.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers donations to be made in Kamilla Way's name to the State College Housing Transitions Fund:  www.housingtransitions.org/donate/.  Address:  217 East Nittany Ave, State College, PA 16801.