Suzanne Elizabeth Dawson

Suzanne Elizabeth Dawson, 57, loving mother, deeply loved daughter, and loyal older sister died November 2011 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Suzanne was born to Bo and Ann Dawson on June 21, 1954 in Okinawa. Born into an military family she lived the life of an Army Brat residing and making friends throughout the United States and world including North Carolina, Maryland, Ohio, Kansas, Hawaii, the German cities of Nuremberg, Giessen, Munich and Mannheim, and Izmir, Turkey. She graduated from Mannheim American High School in 1972 and earned a BA in 1975 and a Masters in Marriage and Family Counseling in 1976 at Pennsylvania State University. Suzanne had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. She achieved All But Dissertation (ABD) from the New School of Social Research in Clinical Psychology and completed the Education of Ministry program at Sewanee, The University of the South.

Suzanne’s love and passion was being a psychotherapist which came naturally to her because of her empathic, unconditionally accepting and authentically caring nature. Throughout her career she worked as a therapist in various capacities, most recently as a Rehabilitation Therapist at N.C. Central Prison in Raleigh. Suzanne was an avid reader, talented writer and actor. When younger, she performed at community theaters in Princeton. Prior to moving to Raleigh she was a very active member of Trinity Church in Princeton N.J. serving in various roles including vestry member and Lay Eucharistic Minister. Suzanne was also known for putting the needs of the less fortunate above her own, she fed the homeless through her work with Crisis Ministry.

Suzanne’s greatest love was her three children – Liza Helene, Zachary Stephen, and Anna Lavinia Dawson-Pitts, all of Princeton, New Jersey. She will also be loved and cherished forever by her parents, Col. (ret) and Mrs. W.H. Dawson of Rancho Mirage, CA and Oak Island, N.C., her four siblings, Mary Lynn Bowlin, Cathaleen Ley, Jenine Flexner, and Wally Dawson and their spouses, as well as her ten nieces and nephews. Additionally, she is survived by her former husband Stephen Pitts of Princeton and aunts, uncles, and cousins throughout the United States.

A memorial service celebrating Suzanne’s life and return to God’s comforting arms, where she will at last be released from pain and suffering, will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton, New Jersey on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 12:00 noon.