Larissa Pond, 90, of Grahamsville, N.Y., passed away Monday, August 26, 2024, at Sands Point Center for Health and Rehabilitation, in Port Washington, N.Y.

Larissa was born in Brest-Litovsk, Poland, on November 3, 1933, the eldest of four children who emigrated to the United States in the mid-1950s with their parents, Nicholas and Stephanie Bishko. The family settled in Richmond Hill, Queens, where Larissa attended high school, after which she worked in Manhattan for such companies as Schaefer Brewing Co. and Hapag Lloyd, a German steamship company.

On vacation in 1954 in Miami Beach with her sister, Alice, Larissa met a young sailor named Joe who was attending the U.S. Navy sonar training school in Key West, Florida. Upon his return to his submarine, Seaman Pond was determined to make Larissa his lifelong partner, and did so, on November 24, 1956.

Their young and growing family lived in Richmond Hill until 1968, during which time Larissa supported her husband through college and then law school. In 1970, after living a year in Woodbourne, N.Y., the family settled in Grahamsville on a new road, named Pond Road, off Big Hollow Road.

In 1971, Joe opened his law office as a sole proprietor, after which Larissa became his secretary and bookkeeper and ran the businesses known as Pond Law Office, Pond Realty, Pond Income Tax Service, and Neversink Abstract Company as the office manager—all while raising five children. The Ponds’ office was a fixture on Main Street in Grahamsville throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s, and well into the 21st Century. Larissa also served as the Town of Neversink Receiver of Taxes, was active in the Tri-Valley PTA and athletics booster club, and donated her time and expertise to the Sullivan County Office of Mental Health.

Larissa is survived by her husband, Joseph; brother, George (Judith); children Gregory (Irene), Linda, Peter, James (Christine), and Jennifer; 12 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. She is predeceased by her parents, Nicholas and Stephanie, and sisters Alicia and Anna.