Sue Rodi

Dolores Suzanne Bissell Rodi (Sue) passed from this life on December 27, 2015, after a nine-year struggle with Alzheimer's Disease. She was 73. Born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on March 6, 1942, she was the second child of Vernon Matthew Bissell and Barbara Burton Bissell.

Sue had a wonderful midwestern childhood, sliding down the fire pole in the station where her father was Assistant Chief, learning expert sewing from her mother, and playing the piano. While a student at St. Mary's Elementary School and Ottumwa Heights Catholic High School, Sue frequently was the parish organist. Her whole life, she retained a special love for liturgical music and often would sing snippets in Latin.

After high school, Sue entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Humility of Ottumwa, the nuns she had always admired as teachers. She completed her early religious training and then earned a bachelor's degree in English at Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa. She taught one year at the order's elementary school in Albia, Iowa, where she also was choir director.

In the mid-1960s, many young people left their religious orders—including Sue—seeking other ways to live out their faith. Many congregated at Catholic universities, as did Sue, who went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to teach at West Allis junior high school and take theology classes at Marquette University. Most afternoons, these young people gathered for Mass at the university's Gesu Church, where Sue was later married. Sue spent 1967-1968 at St. Louis University before returning to teaching in West Allis.

During her first year in Milwaukee, Sue met Stephen Bellew Rodi, Jr., of New Orleans, an ex-seminarian graduate student at Marquette. Sue saw Stephen across the room at a party and immediately told a girl friend, "That's the man I am going to marry!" They romanced that first year in Milwaukee, playing fox-and-geese on the snow-covered lakefront.

Sue and Stephen married June 21, 1969. For their honeymoon, they took their first-ever plane flight together for a youthful adventure driving through Europe in a Volkswagen Beatle.

They returned to real life and headed for The University of Texas at Austin, where they both obtained Ph.D's. Sue studied rhetoric and composition under the well-known scholar Dr. James Kinneavy, while Stephen studied mathematics. They spent five delightful years in married student housing, highlighted by the birth of their two children, David (April 8, 1971) and Colleen (January 7, 1974).

In 1974, Sue and the family moved to Staunton, Va., and then to Washington, D.C. The family returned to Austin in 1976. Sue finished her dissertation and began her career in UT's Department of English (later in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing), where she taught until 2005.

Sue thrived as a university professor. She enjoyed teaching both literature and composition. She was known for her creative use of the Harry Ransom Center art collection as a source of writing assignments and for developing her "Writing About Women Across the Life Cycle" curriculum. She supervised student teachers and traveled around Texas to train high school faculty. Kudos for her courses appeared often on the student-run "Who's Your Favorite Teacher" tables on the West Mall.

Sue was chosen twice as a UT exchange professor with a French university, first at The University of Paul Valéry in Montpellier and then at The University of Paris-Nanterre. In France, she enjoyed making new friends, absorbing the local culture, and traveling. Her family knew never to go into a cathedral without Sue at the elbow to explain the symbolism in the mosaics.

In Austin during these years, Sue took an active role in education and civic events. Of special note was her involvement in the American Association of University Women (AAUW), for which she served a term as Austin chapter president. She loved her Monday night AAUW book club meetings.

Nothing was more important to Sue than the nurturing of her children. She taught early classes so that they would always find her at home at the end of their school day. This is but one of the reasons her family knows that their kind, gentle, sweet Sue was waved right through the gates of Heaven, where now again she advocates for them.

Sue was preceded in death by her older brother, Jerry Bissell. She is survived by her husband, Stephen B. Rodi, Jr., of Austin, Texas; her son, David Michael Rodi (Lia), of Houston, and their children, Remy and Zola; her daughter, Colleen Megan Rodi Kolsti (Kyle), of Colorado Springs, and their children, Matthew and Kathleen; and her brother, Tom Bissell, of West Des Moines, Iowa. The family expresses special thanks to Gerry Brown, Sue's beloved caregiver in her last years.

An Austin service will be held on Saturday, January 2, 2016, at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home (3125 North Lamar Blvd), with visitation from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. followed by a scripture service. A New Orleans service will be held on Friday, January 8, 2016, at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home and Cemetery (5100 Pontchartrain Blvd.), with visitation from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. followed by a Requiem Mass and burial.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Sue's name to St. Austin Catholic Parish, 2026 Guadalupe Street, Austin, Texas, 78705, to support their work with the homeless and hungry.

In Paradisum deducant te Angeli.