Funeral Services Scheduled for Pamela Floyd Wilder

Funeral services for Pamela Floyd Wilder, co-founder of New Directions for Women Inc. and an Orange County civic leader, will be conducted at 10 a.m. Monday at the Laguna Beach Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Wilder, 45, of South Laguna died Wednesday at South Coast Medical Center. She had been suffering from leukemia for a year.

She co-founded New Directions, a 10-year-old recovery center for alcoholic and drug-dependent women, in 1977.

She chaired the National Women’s Alcoholics Anonymous Convention in 1981, the first such conference held on the West Coast, and recently founded Woman to Woman, a national organization of recovering alcoholic women.

“Pam was always open about that . . . she was a recovering alcoholic,” said Lynne Kite, administrator of New Directions and a close friend of Mrs. Wilder. “She liked to help women and she never stopped doing that until the day she died.”

Kite described Mrs. Wilder as “a very dedicated and caring and loving woman” who “got things done.”

“Pamela was just one of those people who could take up something. She had a very good mind for seeing things through.”

Mrs. Wilder served on many boards in the community, including the Los Angeles and Newport Harbor junior leagues and the Orange County chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism. She was also a steering committee member of the Debussy chapter, Orange County Performing Arts Center, and was on the board of Human Options, an organization that provides emergency shelter for abused women and families.

She attended Pembroke College in Rhode Island, Queen Mary College, University of London and the Sorbonne, University of Paris. She worked for Grubb & Ellis, a Laguna Beach real estate firm, at the time of her death.

Mrs. Wilder is survived by her husband, James Lynwood Wilder Jr.; her mother, Dorothy Floyd of Laguna Hills; her children, Gayle, Allison and James Lynwood III, and her brothers, Nathanial Floyd of New York City and William Floyd of Los Angeles.

The family suggests that donations be sent in her name to New Directions for Women Inc., 2601 Willo Lane, Costa Mesa 92627.