Susan Helen Finer
1946-09-09 2024-06-22
Susan Finer Obituary
Susan B. Finer
Norwich, VT - Susan B. Finer, 77, of Norwich died on Saturday, June 22, 2024, at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, about a year after being diagnosed with late-stage esophageal cancer.
She was surrounded by family, which was the most important thing to her throughout her life. She is survived by her husband Chad, their four children Jon, Ben, Emily and Dan, her grandkids Addie and Lewie, and her sisters Ellen and Elizabeth.
Susan and Chad, who were both raised in Brookline, Mass. and were in the same high school class, celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary on June 16.
They were married a few weeks after graduating from college in 1968–Susan from Smith, like her beloved late mother Sylvia. Less than a month later, they moved to Sierra Leone for two years, where they served as Peace Corps volunteers, a defining experience in their lives.
Susan then began a long career as an educator, starting at the Putney School in Putney, Vermont, in the early 1970s. She later taught social studies at Hanover High School, before serving as Principal at the Richmond Middle School from 1986 until her retirement in 2007.
She loved her colleagues on the Richmond School staff and took great pride in her students, whom she enjoyed reconnecting with throughout their lives. While her own kids, all of whom attended the Norwich and Hanover public schools, had more mixed feelings about having their mom at school, they grew to appreciate it later in life.
Susan, who lived on Brigham Hill in Norwich for more than 40 years, loved a house teeming with friends, neighbors, children, pets, and lively conversation. She had a unique ability to whip up incredible meals from whatever she happened to have on the shelves or in the fridge, for however many hungry guests showed up, at whatever hour of the day or night. Everyone was always welcomed with warmth and personal attention, even when they arrived on no notice, and especially at holidays like Thanksgiving, whether they were an old friend or someone who would become a new one.
Susan loved reading novels, making pies, and, in recent years, even after she got sick, reading stories to her grandkids and playing bridge with many of her closest friends from the Upper Valley. She had a gift for forming countless close bonds with people all over the world, including some she may have only met briefly and long ago.
Throughout her life, her most cherished roles were wife, mother, mother-in-law, and perhaps most joyously, grandmother. She and Chad, a retired emergency room doctor, were equal and loving partners in all things and a world-class model of how to build and live a good and decent life.
They traveled the world together, often to visit their far-flung kids-to India, China, Italy, Mexico, England and to national parks across the western United States.
As devoted, working parents of four, they poured themselves into raising their children, spending decades of nights and weekends at hockey, soccer and football, lacrosse and tennis practices and games. Susan always told her kids, often after one of their occasional intra-family squabbles, that they would eventually be each other's closest and most important friends.
While they might have rolled their eyes at the time, her children now acknowledge that she was right about that and so many other things. Her family will miss her more than they can put into words.
Susan B. Finer
Norwich, VT - Susan B. Finer, 77, of Norwich died on Saturday, June 22, 2024, at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, about a year after being diagnosed with late-stage esophageal cancer.
She was surrounded by family, which was the most important thing to her throughout her life. She is survived by her husband Chad, their four children Jon, Ben, Emily and Dan, her grandkids Addie and Lewie, and her sisters Ellen and Elizabeth.
Susan and Chad, who were both raised in Brookline, Mass. and were in the same high school class, celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary on June 16.
They were married a few weeks after graduating from college in 1968–Susan from Smith, like her beloved late mother Sylvia. Less than a month later, they moved to Sierra Leone for two years, where they served as Peace Corps volunteers, a defining experience in their lives.
Susan then began a long career as an educator, starting at the Putney School in Putney, Vermont, in the early 1970s. She later taught social studies at Hanover High School, before serving as Principal at the Richmond Middle School from 1986 until her retirement in 2007.
She loved her colleagues on the Richmond School staff and took great pride in her students, whom she enjoyed reconnecting with throughout their lives. While her own kids, all of whom attended the Norwich and Hanover public schools, had more mixed feelings about having their mom at school, they grew to appreciate it later in life.
Susan, who lived on Brigham Hill in Norwich for more than 40 years, loved a house teeming with friends, neighbors, children, pets, and lively conversation. She had a unique ability to whip up incredible meals from whatever she happened to have on the shelves or in the fridge, for however many hungry guests showed up, at whatever hour of the day or night. Everyone was always welcomed with warmth and personal attention, even when they arrived on no notice, and especially at holidays like Thanksgiving, whether they were an old friend or someone who would become a new one.
Susan loved reading novels, making pies, and, in recent years, even after she got sick, reading stories to her grandkids and playing bridge with many of her closest friends from the Upper Valley. She had a gift for forming countless close bonds with people all over the world, including some she may have only met briefly and long ago.
Throughout her life, her most cherished roles were wife, mother, mother-in-law, and perhaps most joyously, grandmother. She and Chad, a retired emergency room doctor, were equal and loving partners in all things and a world-class model of how to build and live a good and decent life.
They traveled the world together, often to visit their far-flung kids-to India, China, Italy, Mexico, England and to national parks across the western United States.
As devoted, working parents of four, they poured themselves into raising their children, spending decades of nights and weekends at hockey, soccer and football, lacrosse and tennis practices and games. Susan always told her kids, often after one of their occasional intra-family squabbles, that they would eventually be each other's closest and most important friends.
While they might have rolled their eyes at the time, her children now acknowledge that she was right about that and so many other things. Her family will miss her more than they can put into words.