Amalia Gianetti Levy

Amalia was born in Mendoza, Argentina on March 4, 1935. At the age of six, she and her family moved to Santiago, Chile. Amalia came from a hardworking family - her Italian father a restaurant owner, her Spanish mother a devoted homemaker. Amalia was the first in her family to attend University, where she graduated first in her class. She earned her degree from the University of Chile in Chemistry and Pharmacology. After receiving her degree, she participated in a fellowship at Harvard/Mass General Hospital and went on to receive a master’s degree in Endocrinology from University of California San Francisco. Putting her scientific skills to work, she went on to lead a lab conducting research and clinical work in Santiago, Chile.

In 1966 she met the love of her life and her forever partner, Hernan Matias Levy, to whom she was married for almost 6 decades. Together, they raised three children, Rodrigo, Lorena, and Carolina. After starting their family life in Chile, they moved to Washington, D.C where they spent most of their life together. In the United States, her professional career included the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, MD, working in Fort Detrick on developing cancer markers, and working as a biostatistician at George Washington University in Rockville, MD after receiving her second master’s degree in public health from the University of Maryland.

Amalia was a woman of many talents. She was a fantastic cook. Food was her love language, and she cherished feeding her family and friends. She loved to knit and sew, often making Halloween costumes, clothing and sweaters for her kids and grandkids. She was a great gardener, and her flowers brought her immense joy. She was also a volunteer at Harris Bilingual School, helping young children learn Spanish. She loved this job that allowed her to spend time with children. She also loved to travel, spanning the globe and with Hernan visited countries all over the world.

Amalia was the proud grandmother of eight grandchildren, in whom she found no greater joy. Being their “Tita” was her most cherished role in life and one that brought her the deepest happiness.

Amalia was fiercely independent, strong-willed and brilliant yet incredibly warm, gentle, and caring. Her words were measured – direct when called for, always gentle and loving and her quick wit never faltered. She loved others as strongly as she was loved and she was a woman of unrelenting energy. Her smile was infectious, once you saw it you never forgot it. Despite struggling with Dementia, the last years of her life, she never lost her beautiful smile.