Susan Marie Pilch

Susan Marie Pilch, a nutritional biochemist and biomedical informationist who retired in 2013 from the National Institutes of Health Library, died suddenly of a heart attack at her home in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Monday, April 14, 2014. Much of her work over the years focused on the role of nutrition in cancer prevention and control.

At the time of her death, Susan was looking forward to starting work on a contract basis in support of a research team at the National Cancer Institute. Her contributions to health science included grant administration for the Diet and Cancer Branch of that Institute in the mid 90s and regulatory oversight for health claims at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in the late 90s.

From 2001 until her retirement in March 2013, she served as a biomedical informationist at the NIH Library working to support scientists and physicians at the Nutrition Sciences Research Group at the National Cancer Institute and the Office of Dietary Supplements in the NIH Office of the Director. She also provided informationist services to groups at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. As one of the nation’s first professionals in this new field of information science, she helped define and extend its boundaries, using her subject matter expertise as a scientist and her mastery of state-of-the-art skills in information research and evaluation to assist both clinicians and researchers at NIH.

Earlier in her career, she served as deputy director of the Division of Nutrition Research Coordination in the NIH Office of the Director (1990-1993); worked as a staff scientist in the Life Sciences Research Office of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (1983-1990); and was an assistant editor at the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1981-1982).

Susan was born in Washington, D.C. on August 23, 1954. The eldest daughter of Anthony and Dorothy Pilch, she grew up with four younger sisters (Sandy, Joan, Karen and Nancy) under her “wing”, living first in Arlington and then in Springfield, Virginia.

She graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, and was a member of only the third class of undergraduate women to matriculate at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the University, she double majored in biology and chemistry, earning her degree with Distinction in 1976. She was a member of Phi Sigma and volunteered with the Charlottesville Food Co-op.

In 1982, Susan earned a PhD in nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, completing minors in biochemistry and pharmacology. She held the Katharine W. Harris Fellowship and won graduate student travel awards and a departmental Memorial Award for outstanding graduate student.

In 2000, Susan left her position at the Food and Drug Administration to pursue full-time graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, to facilitate a planned career transition. In 2001, she earned a masters in library science with an emphasis on reference and information services in health and biomedical sciences and started work at the NIH Library.

Susan’s passions included Cajun and Zydeco music, dance, and culture. A founding member of the Gumbo Groupies, she contributed to the development of a vibrant Cajun music and dance scene in the DC area. She cultivated many lasting friendships among Cajun and Zydeco musicians and their communities in Louisiana. She also became an avid student learning to play her Pointe Noire accordion built by the late Dick Richard of Church Point, Louisiana.

Susan’s other interests over the years included photography, gourmet cooking, opera, cross-country skiing, and belly dancing. She was a self-confessed “cat lady” who lovingly cared for her five shelter adoptees: first ChiChi and Catsup (a brother-sister pair) and later Leon, Bassette, and Rouxlet. She enjoyed beading and studied the art of storytelling, appearing twice at the DC Speakeasy in that capacity. She supported the fine arts and enjoyed travel, making multiple trips to Louisiana in connection with her interest in Cajun and Zydeco music, studying cooking in Paris, and visiting London, Italy, and places throughout the U.S.

She was a member of the Medical Library Association, the Special Library Association, the American Society for Nutrition, the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, and the Cajun French Music Association. She was an ardent feminist and a lifelong supporter of liberal causes.

Susan gave 100 percent to everything she did, both professionally and personally. She was intelligent and funny, loving and kind, and eager to live all aspects of her life to the fullest. She was an outstanding professional, a wonderful and loyal friend, a loving sister, and a beautiful person. Susan aspired to leave the world a better place and she did. She will be much missed and long remembered.