Suzanne M. Pogell

Suzanne M. Pogell, nee Suzanne Miller, passed away quietly in Cleveland Heights, OH, after a protracted battle with congestive heart failure and dementia, on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Born March 12, 1932, she lived ninety-four productive and creative years and will be remembered as a dedicated activist and social justice warrior, a devoted parent, and someone who fully embodied the ethic of hard work. Born and bred in Baltimore, MD., Suzanne skipped a number of grades in high school, graduated with a B.A. from Goucher College in Towson, MD at age sixteen, and earned her Master’s Degree in Latin American Studie from the State University of New York at Albany. Married to Burton Pogell, a professor of biochemistry and researcher, Suzanne lived in many places because of his work, including Argentina, Denmark, Nashville, TN, Albany, NY, and St. Louis, MO. When they divorced, Suzanne moved to Annapolis, MD to be nearby family. Eventually she moved to Cleveland, OH, where her daughter Sarah currently resides.

Suzanne will be remembered for her ardent support of minorities, serving as a foot soldier in the 1960s Civil Rights movement while in Nashville, TN, where her husband held a post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University. Engaging in sip-ins and sit-ins with young black SNCC students, Suzanne managed, in one memorable incident, to integrate a Tottle House coffee shop by refusing to take “No” for an answer to her query, “Won’t you serve these young students? They’re hungry!” Eventually, she surrendered her more radical Civil Rights activities for fear of getting arrested while pregnant. But Suzanne continued her political activism throughout her life, often with her only child, Sarah, in tow, canvassing for progressive candidates and causes, like the ERA and abortion rights, and protesting the Iraq War. In addition to striving for peace and justice, Suzanne was deeply committed to the environment, calling herself a panentheist after the American Transcendentalists. In St. Louis, she devoted herself to protecting natural areas from toxic drain water run-off, and in the course of her tenure at the Metropolitan Sewer District, met renowned Cleveland native, Donna Shalala. Suzanne continued her environmental work in Annapolis, as the PR director for the Smithsonian’s Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies, and then as a consultant for the EPA, in Washington, D.C. While living in Annapolis, Suzanne fell in love with sailing and, looking for a way to combine her desire to help women, her newfound passion for sailing, and her PR prowess, founded one of the first women’s sailing schools in the U.S: Womanship, Inc., which she successfully ran as CEO for nearly thirty years, throughout the U.S. and internationally. A feminist before her time, Suzanne managed to stake her claim in the male-dominated sport of sailing by helping women feel empowered to take the helm and not remain relegated to the galley.

Up until the day she died, Suzanne was funny, feisty, loving. Suzanne will be terribly missed by her only child and daughter, Sarah Cooper Pogell, her nieces, Annie Rody-Wright, Liz Rody-Konig, and Caroline Rody-Ramazani, her extended family and friends, staff at her assisted living facility, and her care-giving team at hospice. May her beloved soul rest in peace.