Myra Green
Lincoln resident Myra Green passed away on June 21, 2024. She was born on February 11, 1947 in New York City, the daughter of Louis Goldenberg, eventual president of the Manhattan-based Wildenstein Gallery, and his gracious wife and fellow golf enthusiast Helen Goldenberg.
Both Myra and her younger sister Barbara became accomplished classical pianists, attended New Rochelle public schools, and for many years enjoyed, with their friends, summers at Camp Wi Co Su Ta in New Hampshire. In 1964, Myra enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania as an English major, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1968. She subsequently became one of the very few female members of the Yale Law School’s class of 1971. Her 1970 marriage to her first husband, David Green, an aspiring physician, ended in divorce, but not until years after their sons Michael and Alexander were born.
Myra’s first job as a lawyer was at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York. She and her husband then moved to Boston where, as an associate at the firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP, she acted as the first general counsel to University Hospital, now Boston Medical Center.
At Choate, Myra rose to become one of the earliest female partners of a major Boston law firm. Over the ensuing twenty years, she mentored many young lawyers, served a term as chair of the firm’s health care law department, developed a national reputation for excellence in her specialty, and routinely won “best lawyer” honors from her peers. She did all this while working “part-time” helping to raise her sons and her two stepdaughters, Audrey and Sarah, from her marriage in 1987 to Jeffrey Heidt, also a partner at the Choate firm.
Myra left Choate in 2004 to become the first general counsel to Health Dialog, an international health care disease management enterprise. Following the company’s acquisition by a British insurer, she became general counsel to DentaQuest, the management company for a large number of Delta Dental plans across the country.
Myra and Jeff traveled extensively around the world but spent most of their summers with friends and family at their summer home in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard. Myra loved long beach walks, seafood lunches in Menemsha, and the sensuous joy of swimming in the surf at Black Point Beach on the island’s south shore. She loved to play in the sand with her children and, in time, her nine grandchildren (all of whom called her “Ummi”, which is Yiddish for “grandma”).
In 2015, Myra and Jeff had a family home rebuilt on Jeff’s family’s lakefront property on Lake Ainslie, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The pandemic prevented them from enjoying it as much as they would have liked, but they loved their visits to the property, savoring fresh air, lake breezes, the Cabot Trail, wildlife, and the company of friends and relatives.
Myra was known to all as kind, warm, loving, smart, and classy as they come, while remaining modest to a fault. She loved her life which, like those of her parents, was cut tragically short by a debilitating disease, but throughout the course of her illness she maintained an upbeat attitude, a smile for everyone, and a readily apparent love of her friends and family.
She and Jeff moved to a retirement community in 2020, where Jeff remained by her side. Myra passed on June 21 in the company of her husband and family, listening to music she loved and surrounded by pictures of the people who loved her. She is survived by her husband Jeff; her children, Michael Green and his wife Laura Carey; Alex Green and his wife Katie, Sarah Provance and her husband Alan, Audrey O’Shaughnessy and her husband Shannan; her sister, Barbara Goldenberg; and her grandchildren Franklin, Rose, Martin, Olivia, Aiden, Ares, Rowan, Brianna, and Sadie.
A celebration of Myra’s life will be held at the Pierce House in Lincoln in July. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, 34 Washington St., Suite 310, Wellesley Hills, MA 02481 or at curealz.org.