Laurie helped others focus on what was important

Posted on July 17, 2010 | 0 Comments

Bruce Harrison
Chief Executive Officer
EnviroComm International

I remember being knocked out when someone told me she sat at the desk that Arthur Page used. I always had this awe of her. She was the head of PR at AT&T, in New York, for goodness sake! She was a mother of Earth Day! And she was my mentor and guide, pointing the way when I came into the Page Society.

A year ago, she helped me on a book I was writing, zeroing in on what was important to say, moving…

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Laurie knew how to get to the heart of the issue

Posted on July 16, 2010 | 0 Comments

Shelly London
Retired VP and Chief Communications Officer
American Standard Companies

A few years ago, Marilyn Laurie joined me in coaching an executive who was developing a critical marketing plan. Unfortunately, the plan was long on strategy and short on detail. After listening carefully to his vision, Marilyn said with a smile and unmistakable seriousness, “You’re at 50,000 feet, Tom (not real name). You gotta land the plane.”

With those 10 words, Marilyn summed up the problem, and “Tom,” a rather confident – shall we say – executive, stopped in his tracks…

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Laurie was the ultimate model for leadership

Posted on July 16, 2010 | 0 Comments

Jack R. Shultz
Retired Public Relations Vice President-Europe, Middle East and Africa
AT&T

I had the pleasure and honor of working for and with Marilyn Laurie during the years that she rose from the mid-level executive ranks to become the first woman member of AT&T's top executive team.

While many people have spoken glowingly and accurately about Marilyn's skills and instincts as a PR practitiioner, one of the keys to her steadily-expanding influence in the corporation - which I observed firsthand - was her intensity and tenacity in learning the inner workings…

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WIth humor and clear communications, Laurie was a born leader

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 0 Comments

Esther Novak
Founder and CEO
VanguardComm

Marilyn Laurie was a strong role model for me as well as a friend. My affection for her was less related to what she did than to who she was. A strong, powerful woman who had the ability to comprehend, analyze and manage a significant role in a complex social, economic and political world. And, she was a believer in what was important to me – a corporation’s social responsibility to its marketplace and community.

I never got over her journey from launching Earth Day as…

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Laurie’s impact on the profession and the public sector is incalculable

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 0 Comments

Harold Burson
Founder and Chairman
Burson-Marsteller

Public relations - in fact, society in its totality – has suffered an incalculable loss with the untimely death of Marilyn Laurie. Her remarkable career encompassed both the world of business and the public sector. Highly respected by her professional peers, her counsel was heard at the top-most levels of one of the world’s great business enterprises, AT&T.

She gave unstintingly of her time and resources to such institutions as Columbia University, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York City Ballet and the New York City Partnership.…

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Mentoring and authenticity were hallmarks of Laurie’s leadership

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 0 Comments

Adele Ambrose
Vice President and Chief Communications Officer
Merck & Co. Inc.

Marilyn Laurie made an indelible impression on me as the strong, passionate leader of AT&T Public Relations. The tumultuous years of the late 80s and 90s were marked by heady highs and humbling lows for AT&T. For much of that time, while Marilyn was adroitly running the company's vast, worldwide public relations organization, I was serving as AT&T's chief spokesperson.

For me as head of media relations, Marilyn was the right executive to have in my corner and in…

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Laurie’s passion inspired and motivated those around her

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 0 Comments

Kathy Fitzgerald (former EVP, Public Relations and Advertising, Lucent Technologies)
Global Head of Communications
KPMG

I was lucky enough to know Marilyn Laurie for over 30 years. At AT&T, she was my boss, mentor and friend and she remained my mentor and friend in my years at Lucent and KPMG. There's no question that she was a trailblazer both for PR people and for women. At AT&T as the first female head of PR and the highest ranking woman in the company, she broke down doors that allowed me and many other female…

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Marilyn Laurie embodied integrity and courage

Posted on July 15, 2010 | 0 Comments

Roger Bolton
Senior Counselor
RBC Strategic Consulting

When I think of Marilyn Laurie, who passed away yesterday, I think of guts. Specifically, I think of my all-time favorite quote about integrity, spoken by Marilyn at the end of her Arthur W. Page Society Hall of Fame induction speech in September 2002:

"I don't think it takes an MBA ethics course to know right from wrong. But it takes guts to wrestle many of these problems to the ground and do the right thing."

Too many people, when faced with…

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