Susan Ellen Sutton

Susan Ellen Sutton was born in Boston on September 27, 1946. As a child, she pursued the arts through drawing, being cast as the Virgin Mary in the yearly school parade, and marching with the St. Kevin’s Emerald Knights’ drum and bugle corps. After graduating from St. Mary’s High School in Brookline, she attended Boston City Hospital School of Nursing. She happily tended to innumerable patients in that same hospital’s ICU for many years. Her family was quite surprised when she decided to head west in 1981. She’d never visited Seattle before, but it was love at first sight. She discovered a true love of coffee culture, Greenlake, and Mount Rainier. She continued her nursing career at Harborview, Group Health, and later Virginia Mason. Her commitment to the nursing profession inspired her to spend much of her career union organizing to improve working conditions for all health care workers. Susan not only took care of others professionally, but also personally. She was a tireless champion of the underdog, a friend to all, and one of the biggest Celtics fans around. She was proud to be a nurse, but her true pride in life was her family: her children Aimee and Matt (Courtney), her grandchildren, Gabe and Ellie, as well as the grandchild she was excitedly expecting in August. She also leaves behind her beloved brother and sister-in-law, Bill and Jeanne of Milton, MA, and her nieces and nephew: Kyanna, Lili, Holly, and Will. RIP Susan.