Pamela Senske, a kind and loving wife, mother and grandmother, passed away January 7, 2025. Pamela Sue Senske was born in Spokane, WA, on August 14, 1946, the youngest of three children to Alma and Reinhold Albert "Lefty" Pearson. Pam, as she was known, was the sister to her older brothers, Jack and Don. Pam attended Hutton Elementary School and graduated from Lewis & Clark High School in 1964. She went on to earn a degree in psychology from Washington State University. It was at LC where Pam met Mike Senske, the boy who would one day become her husband. The two met as freshmen, but didn't start dating until their senior year. They had short stints at different colleges - Whitman for Pam, and Gonzaga for Mike - and then both ended up at WSU where they graduated together in 1968. They were married in Spokane on June 22, 1968. After getting married, Pam and Mike loaded up their 1968 Ford Mustang and drove two-thousand miles to Cincinnati, with Pam taking a job as a recreational therapist at a mental institution. In her two years in Ohio, Pam became a true Cincinnatian, cheering on The Ohio State Buckeyes and other Ohio sports teams. Pam often recalled those two years in Cincinnati as transformative in the sense that it allowed her and Mike to spread their wings and establish their own identity and traditions away from their parents, and she spoke fondly of her time there. Two years later, Pam and Mike moved back to Spokane and started a family, welcoming Michael Alan in 1970 and Andrew in 1973. They built a house just south of Spokane near Tower Mountain in an area that was mostly wide open farmland. They settled on 20 acres with a stunningly beautiful westward view looking out over golden fields of wheat. At the time, it was a location considered by many to be so off the beaten path that family members who made the 10- or 15-minute drive out to the house used to say they were "going out to the farm." It was a perfect place of quiet, peace and solitude for Pam. The ideal location to raise two young boys, care for her horses Spook and Ginger, and read her books. In 1986, when her two boys were still teenagers, Pam decided to help her mom out at the family business, R.A. Pearson Co., which was founded by her dad some 30 years earlier. The company was struggling a bit at the time, and Pam wanted to see if she could make a course correction. She initially worked for no pay, simply talking to employees and trying to get a sense of all the issues they were having that prevented them from being efficient and effective in serving customers. She realized that processes needed to be modernized and streamlined, and she led the efforts of adopting and utilizing Enterprise Resource Planning software and computer systems to improve on-time delivery to customers. What she thought would be a few months out at the factory turned into three decades. She loved every minute of it because she loved the employees like they were family. The business, now called Pearson Packaging Systems, is still going strong under the leadership of her oldest son, Michael, due to her work all those years ago. Pam enjoyed spending time at her house on Coeur d'Alene Lake's Rockford Bay where she read books and socialized with family. Her innate industriousness was evident in her cleaning and tidying up everything in sight and her unrelenting sweeping of pine needles and leaves off the driveway at the lake. She didn't use a blower to clean that driveway. She used good, old-fashioned elbow grease and a broom. Pam also dedicated time and resources to organizations she felt could truly help improve the lives of children and young adults, including Girl Scouts, YWCA, Mobius Science Center, Northwest Harvest, and Early Life Speech & Learning. She served on the board of directors for both Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington & Northern Idaho and Greater Spokane Incorporated. We don't know exactly why, but Pam really liked pink flamingos. Enough to use the strange-looking, gangly wading bird as a mascot of sorts when she founded the Pink Flamingo Fundraiser for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, an event Pam and Mike hosted at their home for six years. During the fundraiser, the grassy areas were adorned with a flamboyance of plastic flamingos. If anyone ever needed a gift idea for Pam, anything related to pink flamingos was always a solid choice. Her time with her husband, children, grandchildren and friends was what Pam cherished most in life. Her unconditional love, her kindness, her generous spirit, and her dry sense of humor will be missed by everyone who knew her. Pam was preceded in death by her mother and father, Alma and Lefty Pearson; and her older brother, Don. She is survived by her oldest brother, Jack; her husband of 56 years, Mike; her two sons, Michael (Jennifer J.) and Andrew (Jennifer L.); and six grandchildren, Lauren, Olivia, Andrew Jr., Isaac, Aidan, and Owen. A private interment service was held on January 12, at Moran Cemetery. A celebration of life is scheduled for February 1, 2PM, at CenterPlace Regional Event Center in Spokane Valley.

Pamela Sue Pearson Senske 'She was cherished by everybody': Former CEO of Pearson Packaging dies.

Pam Senske came back to the Spokane-based company that her father founded as a non-paid adviser in the early 1980s. It led to a decadeslong run that ended when she stepped down last February from serving on its board of directors.

The woman who is credited with returning Pearson Packaging Systems to viability and leading it to become a local business stalwart died on Tuesday. She was 78.

Her son, Michael Senske, who has served as the company president and CEO since 2004, said he sent a note to the company’s 225 employees about his mother’s role in reshaping the business.

“I wrote that without her involvement, this company almost assuredly would have faded into obscurity,” he said. “I don’t think it probably would have survived without her.”

Senske said his mother’s secret to success was built on three principles: please customers, embolden employees, and shareholder successes will flow from the first two.

“She was a huge advocate of what I would call stakeholder capitalism versus shareholder capitalism,” he said. “She really believed that the mission of the organization should be to do good.”

After serving its customers, the focus turned to those providing services.

“The second thing was creating a financial or economic independence, as well as career opportunities, for the employees of the company and their families,” Senske said. “Finally, if you did those two first things well, the shareholders would earn a reasonable and fair return.

“I took that from her,” he continued, “and we really try to govern the organization that way ever since.”

Restoring glory

Pam Senske granted an interview to The Spokesman-Review in 2019 where she explained in detail about how she came to join the company founded in 1955 by her father, R.A. “Lefty” Pearson.

Lefty Pearson initially named the business R.A. Pearson Co. He previously worked for Bohemian Brewery, which handmade six-pack containers and cases. That led Pearson to invent an automated six-pack case erector in his garage. His invention was adopted across the country and in Europe.

When Pam was 8 years old, she was already learning about the family business from her father.

Later, during summer breaks from Washington State University, she worked at the manufacturing facility, picking up parts at industrial supply stores, copying blueprints and assisting the company’s accountant with bookkeeping.

“I became familiar with the different kinds of things they did on a daily basis,” she said in 2019. “That was really fun, and I was really interested in the business.”

But Pam and her husband, Michael L. Senske, moved to Cincinnati, where she worked in mental health.

When they returned to Spokane, she worked raising her two sons, Michael and Andrew.

After Pearson died in 1971, the family retained ownership of Pearson Packaging Systems. Pam’s mother, Alma, worked at the facility amid changes in the company’s leadership.

Although the company was growing at the time, customers couldn’t get parts on schedule because of an outdated delivery system.

“I had said to my mom, ‘I’m just going to come out there. I just want to talk to the managers of each department, just to get a sense of who they are, what’s going on and their suggestions,’ ” Pam recalled. “So I did that, and it was really interesting. I expected to maybe be there for two or three months. Well, it turned out being 30 years.”

She joined the company full time in 1986. Under her leadership, the company used computers to streamline production and continued to spend money on improving its processes. She took over as CEO in 1992.

“I just really felt the responsibility to do something when the company seemed to be struggling,” she said. “I felt a responsibility that you can’t just give up without trying. If you fail, you can at least say, ‘Well, I did everything I could.’ I really had that sense it was important to do that. (The company) was kind of a family legacy.”

Pearson Packaging Systems builds machines that form, pack, seal and palletize boxes for companies such as Dell, Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola. The company has distributed more than 20,000 machines worldwide. It currently has about 225 employees who generate revenue that exceeds $100 million a year.

When she was presented the choice to sell or continue the family business in 1997, she asked her son Michael if he was interested in leading the company. He assumed the role of president and CEO in 2004.

Health problems

She served on the company’s board of directors until last year. But she stepped down in March after suffering a minor stroke in February, Michael said. While she responded well after the incident, her health recently began to spiral.

“She was a private person, but she really spent a lot of time with close friends and family,” he said. “She never said an unkind word about anybody, and I never heard anybody say an unkind word about her. She was cherished by everybody.”

When she wasn’t leading the company, Pam dedicated time to the Girl Scouts of America, the YWCA, Mobius Science Center, Second Harvest food bank and the Early Life Speech & Language program. She also served on the board of Greater Spokane Incorporated.

During this past year, she received daily care from her husband of 56 years, Michael L. Senske, who is 79.

Pam Senske is also survived by her brother, Jack Pearson, of Spokane; her sons Michael and Andrew; two daughters-in-law both named Jennifer and six grandchildren.

A celebration of life has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Feb. 1 at CenterPlace Regional Event Center, at 2426 N. Discovery Place, in Spokane Valley.