PHOENIX, ARIZONA – A life centered around children, education, and family came to a peaceful end when Suzanne Sodaro passed away August 1, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Born in the Philadelphia area on October 13, 1946, Sue grew up in rural surroundings perfect for childhood adventures and she loved swimming in the nearby creek and climbing trees. After high school, though, Sue had a goal. She wanted to go to college, so she worked retail for a year to earn enough money. When she graduated from Holy Family College in 1970 with a degree in biology, she was the first in her family to do so.
Sue stepped into teaching by volunteering to teach at a Jesuit boarding high school in Alaska, where students were primarily from villages which had no schools. She found such fulfillment in her work that the next year she taught at a reservation school in Montana. By the time she married Craig in 1972, she had set a new goal– to become a certified teacher.
However, that goal was put on hold as Sue and Craig moved to Torrington and had four daughters. Sue loved being a mother and devoted herself fully to raising her daughters, from shuttling them to swimming and soccer lessons, to coaching their softball teams, to sewing costumes and rehearsing lines with them for school plays, to instilling in them a love of learning and the desire to make a difference in the lives of others, as she always endeavored to do. Sue added in-home childcare to her stay-at-home mom tasks, and, as her own children entered school, she began teaching at preschools and eventually opened her own preschool. Eventually, after years of living in Wyoming and Colorado, Sue obtained her teaching degree. She then spent five years teaching in Leadville, Colorado, and in 2008 moved to Phoenix, where she taught third grade at Edison Elementary School, until she retired, though she continued substitute teaching.
When she wasn’t preparing lessons or grading papers, you could find Sue coaching girls’ softball, acting in melodramas, organizing field trips, riding her bike, cross-country skiing, ice skating, solving sudokus and crosswords or enjoying a good book.
Sue is survived by her husband, Craig, and daughters Sally LaPorte, Amy Sodaro, Katie Sodaro-Jensen and Betsy Sodaro. She was also a loving and beloved Grandma of Stella, Kylie and Bianca.
Donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
