Pam Edstrom, one-time PR manager for Microsoft and subsequently a driving force at the PR firm Waggener Edstrom (now WE Communications), has died at age 71. She got her start in public relations at Tektronix, where she was working when I got into the electronics trade press business, covering instrumentation for EDN.

The Wall Street Journal describes the persistence with which she pursued the Tektronix job and finally getting an offer in 1979. The Journal reports that she had wanted to be an FBI agent or police officer, but at five-feet tall was too short.

Melissa Waggener Zorkin writes, “In life, extraordinary doesn’t come by us often. At WE, we have had the privilege, the honor, of extraordinary because Pam has (race) walked our halls. From Pam we have learned many lessons that will always stay with us in perpetuity.  Pam will always stand for what is good and right as the consummate truthteller. There were many things that pushed me to ask Pam to be my partner, the first being the unwavering belief we share that relationships matter more than anything else.”

James R. Hagerty at GeekWire has more here.