Donna Renee McCray McElroy. Entrepreneur, Artist, Model, Rock NYC LLC Partner and Chief Performance Officer at Corporate Performance Artists Corp died today at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. She was 48 years old.
The cause was a rare form of cancer, gamma-delta T-cell lymphoma, that spread to her brain said her husband, Joseph Franklyn McElroy.
Born at a fire station in Philadelphia on March 7th, 1965, Ms. McElroy studied at Philadelphia High School for Girls, followed by college at Temple University. After college, Ms. McElroy followed her father’s footsteps into the Armed Services, joining the Air Force Reserves where she served honorably.
After her commitment to the Air Force was complete, Ms. McElroy became employed in banking and city administration in Philadelphia. But she left those professions after few years to follow her creative and entrepreneurial spirit. She became an artist and artist’s model, in which capacity she met her husband Joseph Franklyn McElroy. They fell in love and moved to New York City in 1995, and eventually were married on September 5th, 1998. It was a love and partnership that would last her the rest of her life. They became known as the artistic and business duo “Joseph and Donna.”
Among Ms. McElroy many accomplishments, she managed the effort to create the first ever digital museum catalog for the show “Luminous Image” at the Alternative Museum in 1996. The New York Times noted that this was important in both being the first to completely replace the print version of a catalog and demonstrating that digital media is the most appropriate medium for presenting catalogs of some types of art work, especially those involving illumination.
Ms McElroy, along with her husband, were the first Flash artists included in the Museum of Computer Art. Continuing a tradition of Kinetic Art, it was a “fine representative of the current work being done.”
Donna was also active in community development such as participating on the Bronx Community Arts Grant Panel Review Board and the Board of the Bruckner Arts and Antique District. She was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to serve on the Hunts Point Empire Zone board. She was recognized for her community work with awards from Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr. and from US Congressman José E. Serrano.
Ms. McElroy was a cultural leader, having served on the advisory board of the Alternative Museum, the Executive Board of the National Visual Artists Guild, the Advisory board for Jennifer Muller The Works dance company, the Benefit Committee for the National Design Museum, the Art & Technology Board for the Bronx Council of the Arts and the Development Committee of the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York.
Ms. McElroy, along with her husband, were also entrepreneurs. During the first dot-com cycle in the late 90s, they raised millions of dollars to found and bring to profitability the first ever Software as a Service model ERP system called EveryDay Office. They also created the first ever print on demand solution called Everyday Print. In recent years, she was helping her husband run the digital marketing agency Corporate Performance Artists.
Donna is remembered by her mother, Lillian McCray, as a take charge person and Mr. McElroy called her “fierce” and “passionate”, and a very spiritual and loving person. The accolades from friends are numerous and dramatically documented in social media, where her marriage and passing has been played out like a masterful form of performance art.
She is survived by her husband Joseph Franklyn McElroy, Stepson Ethan McElroy, mother Lillian McCray , sisters Dionne McCray and Lisa Kidd, brother Don McCray, and many loving uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews.