Susan Spear

Susan Spear, MD, of New York, New York and Wellfleet, Massachusetts died July 30, 2024, at her home in Wellfleet. She graduated from Manhasset High School, and Wellesley College. In the 1960’s she was one of a few women in her class at Columbia Medical School. She completed a pediatric residency at Columbia and fellowship in Adolescent Medicine. She was part of a pediatric practice in New Jersey, and then, using her skills as a communicator and collaborator, she became an executive at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and helped facilitate the merger with Cornell to become New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Afterwards, she was an executive leader for a preventive health care company. Susan was a loved member of her communities, in New York and Wellfleet, Massachusetts. She felt it was important to support the underserved in her Cape Cod community and was very active and dedicated to increasing affordable housing in Wellfleet. A new community of affordable housing is planned to have the entry street named after her, “Susan’s Way.” Her priorities were the people she loved, especially her children and grandchildren.

She was the eternal optimist, seeing the good in everyone she loved and helping them see it in themselves too. Susan had a prodigious capacity not only to have friends, but always to be making new friends. She kept friends from every period of her life, while always adding new ones. Her openness and good humor ensured that people would want not just her acquaintance, but her real friendship, and she made sure that happened. Susan knew how to listen, and make people feel loved and important. She had friends of all ages, and offered comfort, advice, love, and care to all her beloved friends. She leaves behind many people who love her dearly including: her husband, Ronald, her son Samuel (his wife Liza), her daughter Irene (her husband Christopher), her brother Michael, sister Peggy, and the absolute lights of her life, her beloved grandchildren Lilla, Edith, Blaise,and Ocean. She will be missed forever. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod or Wellfleet Preservation Hall.