Baron’s Battles

She always gave of herself, and in the end, homeless advocate and Tufts alum Cynthia Baron lived “a wonderful life.”

Boston, MA [08-11-04] Spare Change News, Boston’s street newspaper devoted to homelessness, poverty, housing and other social issues, will miss one of its most devoted contributors: Cynthia Baron. Baron passed away on Fri. Aug. 6 after a five-year battle with leukemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

This was not the first of Baron’s struggles. A victim of life-threatening depression, she earned an undergraduate degree at Tufts before taking a top post at Boston’s oldest and largest street newspaper.

“She never wanted to be editor,” Linda Larson, a Spare Change editor who hired Baron as her assistant in 1997, told The Boston Globe. Larson met Baron at the Center Club, a social club for the mentally ill in Boston, where Baron put out a daily newsletter.

Baron edited Spare Change News for seven years.

“That was the best decision I ever made as far as Spare Change goes,” Larson told the Globe, “It was tough – she had to learn the computers and we started out not being very clear about what we were trying to do. She was always very proud to serve the homeless community there in Cambridge.”

A believer in positive thinking, Baron rose to the challenges of her job, while maintaining strong relationships with her five editors.

“She loved her job and Spare Change News and never had a negative outlook, no matter what,” publisher Fran Czajkowski told The Associated Press. The paper will publish a memorial section on Baron in September.

Baron secured several key interviews during her time with Spare Change. Her most famous interview was done with Ted Koppel, but her most outstanding, according to Larson, was the one she did with Noam Chomsky.

Baron was the first to interview Chomsky, an M.I.T. professor, about his developing theory that some of language is hard-wired into the human brain. “It was just a great moment for Spare Change to come out with something like that,” Larson told The Boston Globe.

Baron’s dedication and exceptional work will be greatly missed, along with her steadfast friendship.

“She would accompany friends to the dentist, even just to have a cavity filled,” Larson told the Globe.

“We are completely devastated,” Spare Change editor Sam Scott told The Associated Press. “Cynthia was the heart and soul of this newspaper for seven years. There will always be a hole in this office without her, and our thoughts are with her friends and family.”

Baron’s brother, Michael J., told the Globe that Cynthia was at ease toward the end of her struggle. When he mentioned that she might not win this battle, she replied, “That’s OK. I had a wonderful life.”

A memorial service and burial were held on Monday. She is survived by companion Julian Hines, brothers Michael J. Baron and Charles P. Baron and their families.