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French Food and Friends

Once, when Myra Joy Aronson was visiting her brother and his family in Washington, she found out about the Bastille Day celebrations at the French Embassy and managed ‹ at the very last minute ‹ to get herself invited.

It was characteristic both of her love of all things French, and her spontaneous energy. She had fallen in love with France during a year abroad in college, and in recent years she held annual French- themed dinners with 15 or 20 friends, where they would prepare an elaborate Gallic feast with excellent wines. She also organized trips to Cape Cod with her friends in the summer.

Ms. Aronson, 50, loved music, and did volunteer work for the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston. A manager for Compuware in Cambridge, Mass., she was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11.

Her family and friends have established a scholarship at Miami University, her alma mater, to help students who want to study in France.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 11, 2001.

Myra Joy Aronson, 50;

Manager of PR at Compuware

By Globe Staff, 9/20/2001

Myra Joy Aronson of Charlestown, a public relations manager for Compuware Corp. in Cambridge, died in the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 in New York City on Sept. 11. She was 50.

Ms. Aronson, a longtime Boston resident, was on her way to Palm Springs, Calif., for a business conference along with her co-worker, Graham Berkeley, 37, of Boston, who was aboard United Airlines Flight 175 and also died in the attack.

"Myra was a wonderful friend," said Pamela Waite of Cambridge. "She was someone who was looking forward to the rest of her life."

Born in Elgin, Ill., Ms. Aronson was raised in St. Louis. In 1971, she graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a bachelor's degree in French.

She spent her junior year studying in France, where her love for the country's language and cuisine flourished. She later received a master's degree in communications at Boston University.

Ms. Aronson had resided in the Boston area since 1973, according to family and friends.

Over the years, she worked as a public relations consultant to many Boston companies. Ms. Aronson also taught public relations courses at Emerson College. She had worked as a public relations and alliance manager for Compuware Corp. in Cambridge since May 2000.

"She was an incredibly bright woman on top of her game in public relations," Waite said. "She was a wonderful person and I'm going to miss her terribly."

A music fan, Ms. Aronson served on the marketing committee for the Handel and Haydn Society, a premier period instrument orchestra and professional chorus.

Family and friends described Ms. Aronson as athletic and health-conscious, working out four or five times a week.

She leaves her mother, Evelyn, of St. Louis; a brother, Jules, of Bethesda, Md.; and two sisters, Elyse Van Breedan of Clearwater, Fla., and Deborah of St. Louis.

A private memorial service will be held in October.

Editorial Obituary published in THE BOSTON GLOBE on September 20, 2001.