After a five-year battle with a rare form of cancer, Alicia Parlette, a copy editor who learned of her disease just after starting at the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005, died April 22. She was 28.
Not long after word spread about Alicia’s passing, a memorial fund, the Alicia Parlette Fund for Aspiring Journalists, was created at her alma mater, the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. ACES has donated $500 to the fund, which provides scholarships for prospective journalists who have accepted unpaid internships.
Before arriving at the Chronicle, Alicia served as a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund intern at the Philadelphia Inquirer in summer 2004, working under David Sullivan, ACES’ secretary and the Inquirer’s assistant managing editor. She attended the training session for that internship at the University of North Carolina with ACES members Niko Dugan and Brian White. Dugan said she was the quiet one of the group of about a dozen aspiring editors, but she was fastidious, upbeat and hard-working — all traits that would serve her well in her battle with alveolar soft part sarcoma.
After learning of her diagnosis, Alicia began writing a diary, which eventually turned into a 17-part series in the Chronicle. Links to that series can be found in the Chronicle’s obituary online sfgate.com.
On behalf of ACES and its members, we extend our condolences to Alicia’s family, friends and former colleagues.
If you would like to contribute, donations may be sent to the Alicia Parlette Fund for Aspiring Journalists, Reynolds School of Journalism, Mail Stop 310, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557.
