Anita Deloris Alverio

Anita Alverio lived a glorious life. She devoted her life to the health care field and was also an education reform activist and an award-winner in both print and radio journalism. Anita was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York of mixed Pennsylvania Dutch and Puerto Rican heritage, with her mother providing the Pennsylvania Dutch side and her father, born in Puerto Rico, providing the Hispanic side. She always proudly identified most with her Puerto Rican heritage, which she traced back, finally, to the original Tiano natives of the island. And, since she was born in New York, she termed herself a "Newyorican" - a New York City Puerto Rican. Anita left New York City to attend college in western Massachusetts, where she obtained her Bachelor's degree (B.A.). After graduation she immediately began administrative work in a Boston-area hospital, and she continued her relationship to the health care profession for the rest of her life. At the same time, became deeply involved in education reform issues and volunteered extensively with the Education Action Fund, created by Boston author and education reformer Jonathan Kozol. She helped obtain funding for the "alternative schools" of the era, known by the education reform movement of the time as "free schools," because they were where freedom was taught. She married a fellow graduate of her college, who obtained his law degree and who, since he shared her commitment to social justice, became a Legal Services attorney. In 1978 they relocated to Pittsburgh. There her husband became a Neighborhood Legal Services attorney providing free legal service to the then hard-pressed people of Pittsburgh's struggling Steel Valley towns, such as Homestead and, especially, Braddock, where they almost chose to live. At that time Anita immersed herself in the Pittsburgh health care environment. She began working for the Pittsburgh Free Clinic, which provided free health care via participating volunteer doctors and nurses to Pittsburgh's homeless and others without sufficient health care. Because of her previous work in fundraising for the Education Action Fund in Boston, Anita was adept in fund raising for the Pittsburgh Free Clinic. She became a member of the Board of Directors, and eventually, because of her administrative skills, rose to become Chairman of the Board of Directors. She remained affiliated with the Pittsburgh Free Clinic until it ceased operations. Anita also began writing articles about health care issues and began publishing them in the Pittsburgh New Sun, the city's "alternative news weekly" of the time. In a short while she became that newspaper's principal writer, not only on health care issues, but an entire spectrum of issues. It was at the New Sun that she re-met Eric Leif Davin, the paper's editor. They had initially met in Boston, where Eric had also worked with Jonathan Kozol at the Education Action Fund. By complete accident, both had since relocated to Pittsburgh. Anita divorced her husband and she and Eric remained close working and life partners for the rest of her life. After the New Sun ceased operations for financial reasons, Anita helped found the short-lived City Times, a new "alternative newspaper" with Eric and the staff of the New Sun. They also began producing a weekly news program, "The Weekly Reader," at local free-form radio station, WYEP-FM. Over the course of several years working at WYEP, Anita won several Golden Quill awards, Pennsylvania's highest journalism award, for her news reporting. These included awards for "Best Radio Documentary," "Best Feature Story," "Best Sports Reporting," and several other categories. Anita's Golden Quill Award for "Best Radio Documentary" was for a long story she did on the death of the steel industry in Homestead. She also turned this into a video-slide presentation that she and Eric presented at many area locations to publicize the story of the death of steel in the Steel City. She also wrote articles for the local and gritty "voice of the working class" journal, The Mill Hunk Herald, which appeared from 1979-1989. Anita eventually began working at New Image Press, a Pittsburgh print company, until that company also closed for financial reasons. It was while working at New Image Press, in 1987, that Anita was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma brain tumor. Although benign, nevertheless, because of its size, it would have killed her if not removed. Her subsequent surgery successfully removed the tumor, but also severed the big trigeminal nerve on her right side. It left the right side of her face paralyzed, deaf in her right ear, and made it difficult for her paralyzed right eyelid to blink. A gold bar was inserted into her upper right eyelid to provide the weight to pull down the lid and save her eyesight. Even so, she had problems with her right eyelid for the rest of her life. The fact of her partial deafness, her eyelid problem, and her partially paralyzed face did not stop Anita from continuing to live the active life she had always lived. Her surgery had given her a second chance at life, and she seized that chance. Anita subsequently returned to health care administration, and briefly worked at Pittsburgh's Shadyside Hospital and Children's Hospital before joining Magee Women's Hospital, all of them part of the UPMC health care network of hospitals. Anita worked in administration at Magee Hospital up until the time of her untimely death. Her work colleagues at Magee Hospital were devastated upon learning of her death. This was not only because she was, they said, the light of the office, but because, they also said, she was "the glue that kept things together and working around here." Because of her administrative skills and her long institutional knowledge, Anita was able to get things done that no one else could get done. If no one else knew how to get the funding to buy an expensive piece of needed equipment - Anita made it happen. If no one else knew what steps were needed to carry out a particular policy - Anita knew what was needed to get it done. She was, indeed, the glue that kept things together. It is traditional to say good things about people upon their death. But one must say only exceptionally good things about Anita. Anita was a completely good person. She never wished evil on anyone, nor did she ever harm anyone. She devoted her life to helping people and lifting them up. She never undercut, sabotaged, or backstabbed anyone. She never had a bad word for anyone. As a matter of ethical principal she refused to engage in the universal office gossip about others that happens at all workplaces. Anita said only good things about others as an ethical principal, as her guiding policy was, "Applaud in public, criticize in private." She recognized that people everywhere are starved for appreciation, and so, at the slightest opportunity, she publicly lavished appreciation upon her co-workers for their accomplishments. If she had any criticism of a co-worker, she took that up in private with that co-worker. She believed criticisms were not to be aired publicly or in office gossip, so she literally said only good things about people as a matter of ethical principal. Anita and Eric spent almost half a century together, partners in both work and life. They were "joined at the hip." She left her husband to be with Eric and loved him deeply and without reserve for the rest of her life. His name was the last word out of her mouth as she died. And Eric loved Anita, his partner in work and life, deeply and without reserve. She died unexpectedly and suddenly, perhaps as a result of the undiagnosed recurrence of her brain tumor. And she died at home, in Eric's arms as he embraced her and held her close to the very end of her glorious life. The end of his life Came with the end of her life. No more need be said. Professional services entrusted to D'Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd; 4522 Butler Street Pittsburgh, PA, 15201.

Anita Deloris Alverio

January 18, 1949 - March 23, 2026