Susan Koelle Olsen

Susan Koelle Olsen passed away on Tuesday, November 3rd, at her home in Maple City, Michigan. Susie was the younger daughter of Paul and Betty Koelle, born on February 1, 1952, in New Haven, Connecticut. She spent much of her childhood and early high school years in rural Oregon, where her father worked for the Bureau of Land Management; and she gained her life-long love of travel and the outdoors on trips with her parents and older sister, Joan, throughout the western United States and on visits to extended family in the Northeast. After her family moved to Camden, Maine, Susie spent her final high school years at The Principia Upper School in St. Louis, from which she graduated in 1970, and her summers working at her parents’ popular restaurant in Camden.

Susie attended Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, as a member of the Class of 1974, earning a bachelor’s degree in Religion and Art History. There she also met her future husband, Lawrence Olsen; and as Susie traveled around the world during time off from her junior year, she and Larry corresponded by mail and the occasional phone call so extensively that a romance developed. They became engaged shortly after she returned home in January 1973.

Susie and Larry were married in Rockport Harbor, Maine, in a ceremony aboard the Camden windjammers “Mattie” and “Mercantile” on July 15, 1973. After a honeymoon in Bermuda, they settled at The Principia Upper School, where Larry served as a houseparent in the boys’ dormitory and Susie commuted to the college to complete her degree. Two years in St. Louis were followed by nearly six in the Vail, Colorado, area and then a short time in Natick, Massachusetts, before they moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Larry took a position in his family’s business.

Through their early years together and for the first few in Grand Rapids, Susie worked in various positions, including as a hotel reservationist, a sales clerk in a gift shop, and an administrative assistant in a financial advisor’s office. But when she and Larry started a family, she made it her priority to be a devoted stay-at-home mom, doing all she could to expose their two sons to an extensive variety of experiences in museums, art galleries, and the outdoor world of western and northern Michigan. She would also travel with them to Maine and Florida to visit family, often driving on her own if Larry was not able to get away at the time. Through it all, her unmistakable qualities of motherhood shined through in the creativity, purity, love, and constant joy she shared with everyone each day.

When the boys had grown into their middle school and late elementary years, Susie joined the Forest Hills school system, working in its libraries, first at the Northern Trails 5/6 grade building and then at Ada Elementary. These roles were another outlet for Susie’s incredible love for children, especially the special purpose she found teaching children the character traits of kindness and inclusivity. She also found time to be a devoted friend, a regular volunteer at Frederick Meijer Gardens and, as a life-long Christian Scientist, an eager contributor to church in various roles.

After retiring from her school position, Susie spent most of her time at the couple’s Maple City home, where her passion for flowers and gardening led her to create a variety of garden plots around the property, as well as conserve local wildflowers and assist Camps Leelanau and Kohahna with their landscaping and in their office. She and Larry also began to travel more frequently. They had shared road trips to national parks throughout the US and Canada for years; and a spectacular Norway cruise with Larry’s parents in 1997 left a lasting memory that led them to take up regular cruising that introduced them to Alaska, both the Western and Eastern Caribbean, and Hawaii over the years. Another travel highlight that fulfilled a long-standing wish found them visiting New Zealand and Fiji, where they delighted in the gorgeous scenery and warm hospitality of those southern islands.

Susie dearly loved her husband Larry, their son Eric, and their son Paul and daughter-in-law Meredith. She cherished all her relatives and countless friends, who knew Susie as someone with laughing eyes and a radiant smile, always ready to help with any task, play a game, or just to share time together. Her family will honor her desire that no memorial service be held. Instead we ask that all who wish to remember her do so by endeavoring to express more love and joy in each day, as Susie so unselfishly did.

Anyone wishing to honor her memory beyond that may consider a contribution to either:

Camps Leelanau and Kohahna / 1653 S Port Oneida Rd / Maple City MI 49664

The Principia / 13201 Clayton Road / St Louis MO 63131

The family gratefully acknowledges Covell Funeral Homes of Traverse City for their help during these days.