Angela Kyte

Organized and Precise
At 49, Angela Kyte was planning to retire in a year or two. She and her husband, Roger, had saved money and were fixing up a retirement home on Cape Cod. "We went there in the summer," Mr. Kyte said. "We loved bicycling along the National Seashore."

Mrs. Kyte, who lived in Boonton, N.J., started at Marsh & McLennan when it was a young company and worked her way up to managing director.

She was very organized, taping a two- week list of dinner menus on the refrigerator for Mr. Kyte, a retired precision toolmaker, to prepare. And she had a lock-snap memory, which enabled her to make a shopping list with a time-efficient supermarket map — up Aisle 2 for canned tomatoes, down Aisle 3 for paper towels.

The Kytes were putting away money for a scholarship fund at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., where Mrs. Kyte graduated cum laude. Her husband intends to donate more in her memory.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 28, 2001.


Angela Kyte, 49, led by example

Angela Kyte always got to work early. A managing director for Marsh USA Inc., an insurance firm, she was devoted to her job, said her husband, Roger Kyte.

"She was a people person," he said. "And she loved the challenge of her job."

Mrs. Kyte, 49, began at Marsh more than 20 years ago, starting at its Morristown office and eventually moving to Manhattan, where she helped her son, Morgan, 23, begin his own career with the company.

On the morning of Sept. 11, Mrs. Kyte, who normally worked in Midtown, was scheduled to hold a meeting at Marsh's 90th floor office of the World Trade Center's North Tower.

"It was her meeting so I'm sure she was there early to make sure everything was ready," Mr. Kyte said. "She's an organizer and a strong person. She was probably leading everyone down after the planes hit or making sure everybody got off the floor."

Mrs. Kyte also was devoted to her alma mater, Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., said her son, Morgan, who also graduated from Lycoming.

"As a role model, she didn't really push me in any one direction," Morgan Kyte said. "She led by example. Those that had a chance to know her, knew a very loving, supportive person. She really wanted to help people."

A board of trustee for Lycoming, Mrs. Kyte was a big advocate of education.

"Lycoming had an intimate setting where you could walk across campus and know everybody," Mr. Kyte said. "Angela loved that."

To share that joy with others, Mrs. Kyte set up a scholarship fund this summer to help New Jersey students discover Lycoming.

"She wanted to give back," Roger Kyte said.

The couple met 28 years ago, while on line for a tour in Vienna.

"We heard English and turned around and started chatting," said Roger Kyte, who was backpacking through Europe at the time. In a matter of minutes, the two realized they knew some of the same people at Boonton High. Later that year, they married. They eventually moved into a home in a wooded area of Boonton at the end of a 1,000-foot-long driveway.

"She's leaving a great void," said her husband, who for days after the attacks called her still-ringing cell phone several times each hour. "Some days its all too real, then other days you imagine the car pulling up and the door opening."

Mrs. Kyte also is survived by her mother, Marjorie Vaira of Washington, Pa., and four sisters, Karen Hobson of Columbia, Mo., Carol Crowe of East Hartford, Conn., Joy Maynard of Verona, Va., and Nina Turton of West Caldwell.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Boonton United Methodist Church.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to The Kyte Family Endowed Scholarship at Lycoming College, 700 College Place, Williamsport, Pa. 17701.