Former Insight Communications senior vice president of brand strategy and research Pam Euler Halling died Feb. 12 after a brief battle with cancer. She was 72 years old.
Euler Halling was a long-time cable executive, starting out in the industry with Continental Cablevision in her native Ohio, and later as a division marketing manager for Cox Communications in San Diego. After a stint as affiliate marketing manager for Cablevision System’s Rainbow Programming Services in Long Island and later as director of consumer marketing for The Disney Channel in California, Euler Halling was lured back to the East Coast by Insight co-founder and CEO Michael Willner in 1988. She served several roles at the mid-sized cable operator over the next 24 years, retiring in 2012 when Insight was purchased by Time Warner Cable.
Along the way Euler Halling served with several industry groups, including CTAM: The Cable Television Association for Marketing, where she was president of the New York chapter from 1997-1998. After Insight was sold, Euler Halling worked in the real estate business for Hudson River Line Realty in Cold Spring, N.Y.
In a Thursday [Feb. 20] post on the Cable Old Timers Facebook site (which at press time had more than 110 responses), Willner called Euler Halling “a shining light of optimism, grace, humor and love. Six weeks ago, she was living her life, going to work, loving her family, worrying about the world, and being a friend. I am having such difficulty getting my head around life without Pam Euler Halling in it. The world lost a beautiful soul last week.”
Former CTAM CEO Char Beales remembered Euler Halling as an inspiration.
“Pam was a positive force in the cable business,” Beales said in an email message. “She was admired and respected by her marketing peers and a longtime CTAM leader. Pam’s deep experience in both cable and content allowed her to empathize and drive to win-win solutions. Pam’s grace and style are legendary. She’ll be missed.”
SVP Industry & Association Affairs Rob Stoddard remembered Euler Halling as a “smart, articulate, and passionate cable advocate.
“An acknowledged and veteran industry leader in cable marketing, she mentored and encouraged many people as they were coming up in the business,” Stoddard continued in an email message. “Pam’s contributions to CTAM and other industry organizations were substantial and meaningful. I’ll always be deeply thankful for her personal and professional commitment to Cable Positive, when we were working so hard to provide support for industry colleagues living with HIV and AIDS and raise awareness about AIDS treatment and prevention. Pam’s modesty, warmth, wisdom, and gentle sense of humor made her a favorite friend and partner of everyone who had the chance to work with her. Her loss in the prime of life is heart-breaking.”
Former Cable Positive CEO Steve Villano said that Euler Halling's presence on the organization's board for several years was a "gift."
"Pam combined the qualities we all strive to achieve: integrity, humanity, a calm & intelligent approach to problem-solving, and a great respect for everyone with whom she worked," Villano said in an email message. "If I had a particularly thorny issue to grapple with on Cable Positive's diverse board, I would frequently call Pam for her advice, knowing she would listen carefully, without a pre-determined position, and give me an honest, compassionate, and reasonable recommendation. Without fail, she was always a great source of calm, light and humaneness for me, and a role-model for how to live a life of grace under pressure.
"At a time when few people are present in the lives of others, where incivility and nastiness predominates in many areas, and when inhumanity toward others has become public policy, we need more human beings like Pam Halling, not less," he continued. "Her death is painful for me personally, and an enormous loss, not just for everyone who worked with her, but for our wider society, made poorer by the loss of Pam's life, grace and kindness."
Euler Halling leaves behind her husband Arni Halling, daughter Christine, son-in-law, a grandson and several siblings.
