Lindblad Expeditions, in all its iterations, is a trail-blazing enterprise, and Pamela was there every step of the way, wielding her perfect manners, native elegance, and sly sense of humor as effectively as any machete-hefting naturalist hacking through a jungle. And she commands the attention of the far-flung Lindblad enterprise with the aplomb of any polar expedition leader. Get Inspired By Photos, Videos, Webinars, Stories, And Exclusive Offers. Sign Up
Coming from a sheltered childhood in the leafier confines of New England, Pamela’s early travels were of the familial kind. After high school, she attended the venerable Katherine Gibbs School. Immediately upon graduation her adventurous streak appeared, and she headed off to London to work for a year.
She returned to the States and spent the next dozen years working for Mary Rockefeller, first wife of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. More aptly, Mrs. R was the mother of the legendary explorer-art collector, Michael Rockefeller, who went missing and was presumed dead in the Asmat region of New Guinea—making Pamela decidedly explorer-adjacent.
In 1978 Pamela began working for Sven Lindblad during his brief tenure at Lindblad Travel. And the rest, as they say, is history.
In 1979 when Sven started his own company, Special Expeditions, she joined him. Her online biography states, “In the early years Pamela was involved in just about every aspect of the company from reservations to operations to bill paying to the hiring of the field staff on the ships.”
This doesn’t begin to describe the importance and diversity of her role, or the extent to which every one of her tasks, in those early days, involved inventing, not merely being involved in.
We honor Pamela for her can-do explorer spirit, Protean abilities, and for being the co-creator, in many ways, of the soul of this enterprise.
