Cesse Cameron Ip died of metastatic breast cancer on August 24, 2023, at her home in Brightwood Park. At 39, she was a fiercely devoted mother, wife, daughter and friend who deserved much more time.

Cesse was born July 15, 1984 in Kyonggi Province, South Korea and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She was a 2002 graduate of Parkway West High School and received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2006, where she pledged Alpha Delta Pi. After earning her Master’s degree in mathematics from St. Louis University in 2008, she moved to Washington, DC for an internship and fell in love with the city.

Her passion for maps and math took her first to the Rand Corporation and then to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, where she worked for the last 13 years as an imagery analyst. Her assignments included time with the Department of Defense and the State Department and a station abroad in Korea (her NGA colleagues dubbed it her “Reign of Terror”). She was consistently recognized for her leadership and outstanding contributions, and was called on to brief both Congress and federal agencies about her research.

Cesse was good at so many things. She was a classically trained violist and former figure skater. She loved art and music, and had so many hobbies: growing vegetables, cooking, running, traveling, volunteering. She met her husband and best friend, Mark Pry, when they both played in a local DC band. She loved baseball (Nationals and Cardinals), beer (Schlafly), and anything Missouri. She was an organizer – fundraisers, baby showers, trips, parties, meal swaps – and everyone’s most reliable and candid friend. To know her was to be amazed and somewhat intimidated.

Her generosity of spirit extended to her broader community. She loved Brightwood Park and was committed to making it a safe, equitable place for all. She was a passionate advocate for building a public library on Kennedy Street, supporting small businesses, affordable housing, and providing mutual aid to her neighbors. As Councilmember Janeese Lewis George wrote, Cesse was “the kind of person that transforms a place into a community.”

In 2022, she served as a member of the Ward 4 Redistricting Task Force, applying her strengths in analysis, diplomacy, and mapmaking to help update the Advisory Neighborhood Commission boundaries. She was also a volunteer and past president for the Parent Teacher Organization at Dorothy Height Elementary School.

In 2020, she started writing for Petworth News after deciding to pick up journalism as a pandemic hobby. Unsurprisingly, she was also great at that. “The people in Petworth are what made me fall in love with it,” she wrote in her first column. “The friendships that I have formed through this neighborhood will be lifelong.”

After her diagnosis at 34, she became a champion for other young women facing breast cancer and wrote for both national outlets and Petworth News about the importance of screening and self-advocacy.

What she loved most was the family she and Mark created. She showered Max, 6, and Ethan, 4, with adoration and was committed to making memories with them. She lived for milestones: celebrating birthdays, seeing her sons learn to ride their bikes, going on adventures to destinations near and far. She fought so hard to stay here for Mark and the boys; they were her whole world and gave her hope and strength through rounds of cancer treatments.

In addition to her husband and sons, Cesse is survived by her mother, Susan Ip, and her brother, Aidan R. Ip. She also leaves behind her mother-in-law, Sherrie Genson (and husband Dave), father-in-law Timothy Pry (and wife Gail), and many aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family, in-laws, and friends. She was predeceased by her father, Aidan W. Ip, in 2013.

Services will be held at the Friends Meeting of Washington at 11 am on September 16, followed by a reception. In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting the Young Survival Coalition, the Breast Cancer Research Fund or Ward 4 Mutual Aid.

Obituary written by the family and friends of Cesse Ip.