Amber Miro 30 July 1965 - 6 March 2012

Amber Miro in Red

I met Amber when I started to work at LSE in 2005. I had been taken on to do a job working for Sue Wing who rang me just before I started to tell me she was leaving LSE!  So when I arrived I found myself "acting up" together with Amber. Now Amber had been at LSE for many years and was at that time the Training Manager and she was really helpful to me in getting settled in. I remember going to a UCISA (Universities IT networking) conference and over a few drinks asking Amber if she would be applying for the job that Sue had left.  I was delighted when she said she was and then got the job.

So for most of the 5 years or so I worked at LSE Amber was my boss. We worked closely together and shared some difficult times. Typically we would get coffee from Pret or Starbucks and sometimes lunch. Amber always having a soya cappuccino with sweetener.  We shared a love for decent coffee, gadgets and a good few drinks when the opportunity presented itself as it frequently did at UCISA conferences. Later we both became avid social media users, particularly of Twitter.

Amber with her red
coat and iPhone

My abiding memory of Amber is of her wearing her red coat and clutching her iPhone. That and (in a typical Amber paradox) a fountain pen!

Typically smiling Amber always had time for people and a genuine interest in their lives. Always remembering details she treated her colleagues as human beings not mere cogs in the machine and as a consequence was extremely well regarded.

Amber combined this human touch with a strong competitive streak and a determination that you would not, perhaps, guess just by looking at her. I think it was the combination of these two things that enabled her to get things done. She would have an idea, talk about it, convince people and it would actually happen.

After I left LSE I was pleased to continue to see Amber from time to time. Sometimes on the train up to Suffolk where her and her partner had a place not far away from my home.We finally got round to meeting up in Suffolk over Christmas in Stradbroke where Amber, her wife and my wife went out for a meal.

So on Saturday in the small Suffolk village of Thrandeston we will "honour, cherish and bury" Amber and then celebrate her life in a nearby pub in a way that Amber would, I am sure, approve of.  And whilst she leaves a huge hole in the lives of us all I feel privileged to have called Amber a friend and my life was better for knowing her. I know I am not alone.

At LSE and amongst the wider higher education community and amongst her friends and family I know there are many people feeling the same and that says it all.

If you would like to donate to Cancer Research in memory of Amber you can do so here
Visit the virtual scrapbook in memory of Amber at http://www.ambermiro.org


Amber Miro was Assistant Director of IT Services at the London School of Economics and a member of the UCISA Executive. You can read the UCISA announcement of Amber's death.