Susan Foster Myers

Sep. 25, 1945 - Mar. 14, 2014

_______________________

Visitation:

     Saturday April 19, 2014

     1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
            and
     7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

     Treusdell Funeral Home
     65 S. Main Street
     Belfast, NY
     

 

Memorial Service:

   Time and place
   to be determined later
     

Susan (Sue) Foster Myers

PORT DOUGLAS, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA - Susan (Sue) Foster Myers of Friendship, NY passed away at the Sea Temple Resort in Port Douglas at about 9:00 p.m. on Friday, 14 March 2014 of a heart attack. She and her husband were traveling with Overseas Adventure Travel in Australia and New Zealand.

Sue was born at Kew Gardens, New York on 25 September 1945. She was the daughter of Percival Edwin and Elizabeth Pauline (Moore) Foster.

Susan was a 1963 graduate of Bayport Central School on Long Island where she received the top female athlete award at her graduation ceremony and then attended Alfred University where she was a nursing student.

On 28 August 1965, she married her husband of 48 years, Alan Wayne Myers, at the Bayport Methodist Church in Bayport, Long Island, NY. They met while exploring a cave in Albany County, NY and continued spelunking with their children for many years.

Sue and Al have lived in the same house in Friendship, NY since August of 1968. They came to Friendship from Richfield Springs, NY.

Susan was predeceased by her parents and a sister, Joan Leonard, of California.

When asked by fellow trip members in Australia and New Zealand how he would sum up Sue's life Al said, "She was Mrs. Public Service." Sue worked in the cafeteria at Friendship Central School while her children were in school in the 1970s and late 1980s. During this time, she served as Cub Scout Pack Master because there were no men to do the job. In 1990, Sue was elected to fill an unexpired term as a councilman on the Board of the Town Friendship. She was re-elected in 1991 and also was appointed to the board of the Friendship Free Library, serving in most of its offices ever since, currently having been President of the board for about 10 years. Sue ran for and was elected to the Allegany County Legislature in the fall of 1994 and essentially devoted full time to this activity, which she enjoyed to the extreme. She was re-elected in 1997 and again in 2001 for full four-year terms. She chaired a number of committees on the legislature. She also represented Allegany County on many boards and at other organizations. A few examples of these include serving on the board of Southern Tier West (Chairing its Transportation Committee), the Genesee Valley Greenway Board and the Seneca Trail Resource Conservation and Development board (serving as the New York State R C & D organization Vice President at one point). She was chairman of the 2000 U. S. Census effort in Allegany County. She became the Chairman of the Board of the Friendship-Cuba Economic Development Zone in 2000 and continued as a member of that board until the State of New York discontinued the EDZ Boards in 2009. She was also currently serving as a member of the Allegany County Youth Board. We apologize to any organizations that Sue served on that we left out. There were really too many to remember or to count.

In the late 80s and early 90s Sue worked at the AM&A store in Olean. In late 1992, Sue became a licensed real estate agent.

Susan was a strong supporter of Economic Development in Allegany County and the Southern Tier. She learned that economic development and tourism were greatly enhanced wherever there was an Interstate highway, so she began a campaign to have our congressman, Amo Houghton, work to get designation as an Interstate for New York State Route 17 across the Southern Tier. He was against the idea, so Sue collected about a thousand signatures on petitions and delivered them all to him personally. At that time she became co-chairman of a three-county task force to get New York State Route 17 designated as U. S. Interstate Highway 86, serving in that position for about 15 years. As we can see today, that effort was successful. Shortly after that, the newly designated Interstate began to disintegrate with large chunks of pavement coming loose at the joints causing many a blown tire and damage to vehicle suspensions. Sue then launched into a campaign to have the highway rebuilt in Allegany County, only to find that it was not on New York State's upgrade plan until 10 to 12 years in the future. So she began to stop along I-86 and pick up broken five to six inch chunks of the road and wrote I-86 and the date on them. She took these to the offices of State Legislators, Senators and NYS Department of Transportation supervisors and gave them to them for paperweights for their desks. This strategy was also successful. Repairs to the Allegany County Section of I-86 were completed in 2006, 5-6 years earlier than it had been scheduled for. The late NY State Senator, Pat McGee, even use to publicly call I-86 "Sue's Road."

Sue served on the Friendship Freedom Fair Committee in the 1990s and was chairman of the parade for that local holiday for a number of years. Sue was chairman of the Allegany County Bi-Centennial Committee, which occurred in 2006. In the fall of 2006, Sue was one of those instrumental in the development of a Republican Women's Club in Allegany County. In January of 2007, Sue accepted a job with New York State Senator Cathy Young's office as a community liaison person to represent Cathy at functions that she couldn't attend due to other commitments, such as being in session at the Senate in Albany, NY. In 2009, Sue was elected for a second tenure on the Town of Friendship Board of Trustees, was re-elected in 2013 and was serving as Deputy Town Supervisor in 2014. Sue was also currently chairing the Bi-Centennial Committee for the Town of Friendship, which will be held in 2015. She has been working with Angel Action through the ACCORD Corporation to help ensure a good Christmas for families in need and provided some of their needs for furniture and other items during other parts of the year. She also served many other organizations, serving as an officer for many of them.

Amid all of this Sue still found time for flower gardening, genealogy, photography, reading 3 to 4 novels a week, sailing locally and on bareboat chartered sailboats on the west coast of Florida and in San Diego, in the British Virgin Islands in 2008, the Bahamas in 2010 and 2012 and in St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2013.

Sue and Al both liked to travel, participating in an agricultural educator's exchange to the People's Republic of China in July of 1988. While Al was working in Trinidad she went along on one trip and had a great time entertaining herself with hotel staff and other guests while Al taught classes. They traveled to Ecuador in 2009, visiting Quito, the Amazon River basin, Volcano Row in the Andes Mountains and the Galapagos Islands on this trip. In 2010 they went to the northern half of Thailand, visiting Bangkok, the Bridge Over the River Kwai, Chang Rai, Chang Mai and parts of Myanmar and Laos. In the Spring of 2011, they went to Turkey, visiting Istanbul, Cappadocia, the Mediterranean Coast, sailed the Aegean Sea coast and many Greek, Roman, Christian, Hittite and other ruins in the country. She really enjoyed a hot air balloon over the fairy pinnacles of Cappadocia on this trip. In the Fall of 2011, they visited Argentina and Antarctica, including Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. The ship tourney across the Drake Passage, roughest ocean in the world, was a special highlight of this trip. In November of 2012, they stopped for a day in Amsterdam, Holland on their way to a Safari in Tanzania, visiting Arusha, the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tarangire National Park, the Ngorongoro Highlands, the Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Caldera. They also spent a week at the Texas Star Party near Ft. Davis in 2000, 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2013. She also visited 45 of the 50 United States over the years. Sue did this despite a great many major health problems. Her mantra was always "do it while you can because tomorrow may well be too late." It does no good to say I wish I had when you no longer can. She died doing just exactly the kind of things she wanted to do. Australia completed visits to all seven continents of the world for her.

Sue was very active in politics besides serving in public office herself. She was Chairman of the Republican Party in the Town of Friendship, a Republican District Chairman for one of the five electoral districts in Allegany County and served on the Executive Committee of the Allegany County Republican Party. Among her good friends she counted Congressmen Amo Houghton, Randy Kuhl, and Tom Reed. Also New York State Senators Patricia McGee and Cathy Young and New York State Assemblyman Joe Giglio.

Surviving are Susan's husband, Alan Wayne Myers; sons Charles Edwin (Vanessa) Myers PHD of DeKalb, IL and Trent Alan (Lori) Myers of Copley, OH; three sisters, Shirley (Erick) Christensen and Marilyn (George) Simms both of New Port Richey, FL and the Rev. Elizabeth (John) Mowry of Grafton, New York; a brother Pete (Debbie) Foster of Mitchellville, MD and four grandchildren, Rachel, Joshua, Jessica and Hannah Myers, all of Copley, OH. Also surviving are many nieces and nephews and their children.

Her many friends and family may call at the Truesdell Funeral Home at 65 Main St. in Belfast, NY from 1 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, 19 April 2014.

In addition, a Memorial Service and Celebration of the Life of Susan Myers will be held at a time and place to be determined later. Clergy will be Rev. Betsey Mowry, sister of the deceased, assisted by others. This will probably be in the Friendship/Cuba area and is likely to be on Saturday, 17 May 2014. Notice of the time and location of this Service and Celebration will appear in this space in about two weeks.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Susan Foster Myers Endowment Fund at the Friendship Free Library, West Main St., Friendship, NY.

 

                     

 

 

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