Susan E. Auerbach

From: Concord Monitor - Concord,NH,USA - Mar 30, 2007

Worked at the National Law Center for the Deaf

Monitor staff

Susan E. Auerbach, 53, of Warren Street in Concord, died Saturday, March 24, 2007, after a sudden illness while vacationing in Fort Myers, Fla.

She was born April 18, 1953, in Washington, D.C., to Hortense and Leon Auerbach. The youngest of three children, Sue attended schools in Hyattsville, Md., graduating from Northwestern High School in 1971. Susan then attended and graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park with a bachelor's degree in education, with a concentration in English.

As a child of two deaf parents (both worked at Gallaudet University, her father, head of the math department, her mother, coordinator of community services), she went on to work at the National Law Center for the Deaf and obtained a master's degree in guidance and counseling from Gallaudet University.

Susan worked as a guidance counselor for deaf and hard-of-hearing children at the Columbia School for the Deaf in Columbia, Md., and then, seeking a guidance position in public schools, she relocated to New Hampshire in 1981 and worked for the Manchester School District regional educational program for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. She then served as the Coordinator of Deaf Services for the New Hampshire Department of Education, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and later as human resource administrator for the full department. In 2001, she earned her Ph.D. in human organizational systems from the Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif., concentrating on strategic planning for public schools involving comprehensive community engagement.

After leaving state service, she consulted with New Hampshire public schools and other public sector organizations for Engaging Results LLC, taught for the graduate program of Plymouth State University, and served as executive director for the New Hampshire Chapter of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

Sue will always be remembered personally and professionally for her ability to meet people from all walks of life and to help them come together toward a common purpose.

Susan enjoyed volunteer services as a member, past president and secretary of the Concord Lions Club and as first lady of New Hampshire Lions District 44N in 1998 to 1999 when her husband, Paul, served as district governor.

She also served the deaf community for many years as a well-known sign language interpreter, as a consultant and as a member of the founding charter board for the Laurent Clerc School.

She loved her family, the beach, the Red Sox, gardening and practicing agility with her two corgis, Jack and Ted.

Surviving are her mother, Hortense Auerbach and her husband, Paul Leather, of Concord; her son, David Cook, his wife, Tiffany Cook, and granddaughters Taylor and Kendall Cook of San Jose, Calif.; her stepdaughter, Kaia Schwartz, and her husband, Peter Schwartz, of New Delhi; her sister, Deborah Giancoli and husband, John Giancoli, of Silver Spring, Md.; her brother, Michael Auerbach and his wife, Ann Auerbach, of Denbigh, Wales; in-laws Jeanne and Peter Leather and Thomas and Susan O'Hara of Eastham, Mass., and Bryan Leather of Milwaukee, Wis.; five nieces; eight nephews; and two grandnieces and two grandnephews.

Memorial services will be held April 14 at 10 a.m. at St. Paul's Church Episcopal, 21 Centre St. in Concord. A reception will follow.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation of New Hampshire, P.O. Box 970, Concord 03302; or to Northeast Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc., 125 Airport Road, Concord 03301.

© 2007 Concord Monitor Online