Deborah Paciotti McKneally

Obituary

Deborah Madeline Ann (Paciotti) McKneally was born in Eveleth, Minnesota in 1939 to Roland and Adelaide (Kilstrom) Paciotti. She grew up in Northern Minnesota, not far from the Canadian border, with her older sisters Francesca and Adelaide, and her younger sister Pamela. Deborah excelled in science and music, graduating in 1961 from Carleton College with a degree in Classical Music. She pursued graduate studies in music at the University of Minnesota, where she met her lifelong partner, surgeon Martin Francis McKneally. She played the viola professionally in the Grand Forks Symphony, the Albany Symphony, and the North York Symphony in Toronto. Deborah brought and found great joy playing in orchestras and string quartets, and in studying with renowned Julliard violist Karen Tuttle.

Deborah illuminated our lives, always asking, “What should we do?...What would be good?...What would be fun?!” She built strong bonds of loyalty, affection, and community everywhere she went. Deborah enthusiastically supported Martin as they adventured to Grand Forks airbase in North Dakota, and then to Albany, New York, where they settled to raise their family. There she helped develop a strong academic and social community around the respected Albany Cardio-Thoracic Surgery group. Upon moving to North York, Ontario, Deborah worked with Martin to create a familial community around the Joint Center for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. In 2018, Deborah and Martin moved to Medford, Massachusetts to be close to family.

Deborah’s warmth, generosity, cheerful and luminous spirit, and zest for life fostered enduring relationships. She was regularly cooking and laughing with joy, editing grants, papers, and books, organizing and hosting gatherings of family, friends or colleagues, and playing beautiful music. She instilled care and musicality in her children and grandchildren, filling the home with animals and instruments. She nourished us with her open heart and generous spirit, which extended to plants and critters in the garden, the many pet dogs, cats, rabbits, fish, as well as guest goats, chickens, ducklings, lambs, and piglets visiting the home! Deborah loved skiing, swimming, Tai Chi, gardening, travelling, and walking the local ravines clearing the riverbanks and streams of North York, then the trails of the Medford Fells. Her grandchildren fondly recall Nonna’s wonderful cooking—making Christmas cookies and eggnog with her in Toronto, her almond horseshoes, her love of bunnies, making cheese nubbins together, and sitting reading to each other.

Deborah passed away peacefully at the age of 87 in comfort and dignity, surrounded by loved ones in her home in Medford on Tuesday evening, July 7, 2026. Deborah is survived by her beloved husband, Martin and her loving children, Ellen with her son Nestor, Christopher and his wife Jessica, Luke and his wife Ranida with their children Maia and Siri, Gregory and his wife Rosie with their children Raphael and Miranda, and Deborah’s sisters: Francesca Sutherland, Adelaide Petrucco, and Pamela Michaelis and her husband Don, with many loving nieces and nephews.

Please share your memories, stories, and love below. A Celebration of Life will be held at a place and time yet to be determined. Donations may be made in Deborah's honor to local organizations that address some of Deborah’s interests in protecting nature, supporting music and education, and providing food to those in need: Trees Medford, Mystic River Watershed Association, Winchester Community Music School, Food Link.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the Beals-Geake-Magliozzi Funeral Home of Medford (www.magliozzifuneralhome.com).

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