Eric Myrvaagnes

Eric Myrvaagnes, age 86, Newton, Massachusetts, died at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Boston, June 5, 2026, from Alzheimer’s.  Eric was predeceased by his wife Naomi and his brother Rodney, and is survived by his son Joshua and his sister-in-law Barbara. 

Born in Alfred, New York, to Kaspar and Violet Myrvaagnes, Eric grew up in Medford and Winchester and studied mathematics at Harvard and Tufts, one of the first members of the PhD program. His first passion was photography. Whatever else was going on in life, he showed up for his photo group to discuss what they were doing in their photographs and to critique and help one another improve. Photography was a spiritual devotion for him, with a mystical dimension that he first discovered through the teachings of his mentor, Minor White.  He loved the beauty of faraway nature, unspoiled by human presence, and for forty years, he developed his photographs the old-fashioned way, in a darkroom.

Music was a second passion: classical flute and klezmer.  His day job was professor of a mathematics and computer science at Suffolk University, where he helped many students who lacked advantages discover they could master mathematics. He was one of the people who helped create the first computer science programs, and also enjoyed helping pioneer a new system of student-centered learning, as well as  teaching a freshman general course called “integrated studies” which provoked a lot of new thinking in himself and his students.

The funeral will be held Monday, June 8, at 10:30 AM, at the Universal Lutheran Church of the Newtons. Shiva will be hosted nearby. In lieu of gifts, donations can be made to the Minor White Archive at the MIT museum. He would also want you to find something beautiful and think about why it is beautiful to you: to probe into not only what it is, but also, in the words of the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, “What else it is.“