Susan Joan Gordon Obituary

Susan Joan Gordon, 72, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, January 9, 2021. The daughter of Ernestine Schenk and Irwin Gordon, Susan was born on August 13, 1948 in New York and was raised on Long Island along with her older brother Richard.

She graduated from The State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton. After graduation she remained in New York working first, for American Express and then maintaining a long career with Boehringer Ingelheim, a global, family owned, research driven pharmaceutical company.

After meeting her life partner, Matthew Coogan, in 1980, they moved to Croton-on-Hudson, New York where they enjoyed a life of travel, good friends, and their cats Nutmeg and Ginger. Visiting Nigeria, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, France, and England, to name a few, was a highlight of those years.

Susan’s adventurous spirit was legendary, including stories of hitchhiking through Europe leading to traveling the countryside on the back of a motorcycle. Susan’s quest for learning led her not to just visit other places, but to immerse herself in the culture and get to know the new people she met. Some of these became life-long friends and pen pals.

In 2005, Susan retired and moved to North Kingstown, Rhode Island where she continued to pursue her love of travel. She traveled widely in retirement including trips to Europe, Cuba, Hawaii, Prague and the Czech Republic and a bike tour through Vietnam.

An excellent photographer, Susan used the beautiful setting of Rhode Island to grow her photo collection. Organized beyond the ordinary, if you were fortunate enough to visit Susan, you were treated to her binders of photos from her many trips abroad. Hopefully while there, you would also be offered a treat from one of the many new recipes Susan liked to try.

Susan loved working in her yard and gardens, often accompanied by her cats Scooter and Jack. She also enjoyed biking and walking down to her neighborhood beach for a swim on a hot summer day.

A life-long learner, Susan was an avid reader. She also enjoyed foreign films, movies, the theater and symphony and she loved to take local classes/courses and attending local lectures to continually learn and grow. Friends remember her as someone who was always sharing current affair articles, good books and interesting information and facts learned in her classes and courses or by her extensive reading

Curious and caring about the world around her, Susan was active in several local community groups including South County Huddle and LLC, the Lifelong Learning Collaborative where she was on the Walking Group and Technology Committees. She attended local rallies in support of critical social justice issues and regularly contacted her local and federal delegation about issues of importance.

Susan is survived by her long time companion Matt Coogan, her favorite cousin Gary Gordon and other relatives and her many, many friends here in the United States and around the world. It would be agreed among all, that she is gone way too soon and that we will miss her smile, her adventurous spirit and her love of life and learning.

Due to COVID restrictions, a Celebration of Life will be held later this spring or summer, when it is safe to congregate.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Susan’s name to Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Doctors Without Borders or Rhode Island Public Radio.