Pamela Edstrom: Strategist who shaped Microsoft's image dies at 71

Pamela Edstrom, a communications strategist who shaped the public image of Microsoft and its co-founder, Bill Gates, during the company’s reign as the most powerful technology player in the world, died on Tuesday at her home in Vancouver, Wash. She was 71.
 
Representatives of the public relations agency she co-founded in Bellevue, Wash., said she had died in her sleep after a four-month struggle with cancer.
 
When Edstrom joined Microsoft in Seattle in 1982 as its first director of public relations, the company was an obscure maker of software and personal computers were only beginning to climb out of hobbyist culture