Devon Casti Malloy passed away unexpectedly in February of this year at the age of 35. She was a light in the life of everyone who knew her. She always put the needs of others before herself, so her family knew the best way to honor her was to create a scholarship fund in her memory to help those who did not know her in life.
Her sister Taylor described Devon as someone who knew how to make you feel at ease. “She had so much going for her. She was beautiful, she was so smart, and she had a successful career. But what drew everyone to her was that she truly had the most natural ability to make people laugh and to make people feel special,” Taylor said.
Though she was born the second of four daughters, Devon was a born leader and organizer. Those gifts, paired with a wicked sense of humor and a deep love of caring for those around her, meant Devon built community wherever she went. She could make a friend out of almost anyone and a party out of any situation.
As a Forest Hills High School student, Devon tried her hand at many extracurricular activities. She was the lead in school plays, sang in choir, competed in forensics, and was voted Class President. She even taught second grade catechism and volunteered annually for St. John’s Catholic Church in Summerhill. Where she truly excelled was Mock Trial. From a young age, Devon knew she wanted to be a lawyer, and through the mock trial competitions at the Ebensburg courthouse, she honed a budding passion for the law.
She continued competing through law school, where she became a member of the Ohio Northern Moot Court team. After graduating, Devon stayed involved, serving the Pennsylvania Bar Association Young Lawyers Division as the co-chair for Allegheny County and the co-coordinator of the Mock Trial programs. Her family believes her desire to give back to her community kept her involved with the program.
As a fashionable, 5’1″, blonde, and bubbly attorney, Devon was never bothered by the endless barrage of Legally Blonde jokes – she considered herself a dead ringer for Reese Witherspoon anyways. But though her law career was the culmination of a lifelong goal, she found the expense of law school and the debt incurred through higher education to be a significant challenge.
It’s for this reason that her family wants to honor her legacy through the Devon Casti Malloy Scholarship Fund. The fund will provide an annual scholarship for graduating seniors at Forest Hills High School who, like Devon, are well-rounded students and have a history of strong participation in non-sport extracurricular activities and community involvement. The family will award the first scholarship in the 2024 school year and intends to grow the fund for many years to come.
To donate to this fund, click here. If you want to learn more about creating a scholarship or a legacy fund, please contact Katrina Perkosky at kperkosky@cfalleghenies.org.
