Susan Davis Ritchie

Susan Davis Ritchie January 28, 1945 – June 9, 2012 Susan lived a life without a false note. She was a woman of great intellect, talent, and kindness. She had an unfailing compassion for others, a wonderful sense of humor, and an impatience for phoniness of any sort. Born in Boston, Massachusetts to Donald & Barbara (O’Hearn) Davis, Susan was raised in Middletown, New Jersey. She graduated in 1967 from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Before the end of the decade, she worked on a dude ranch in Montana, honed her culinary skills working at Vermont’s Blueberry Hill Inn, and hopped a freighter to South America, where she worked in Rio de Janeiro as the night editor of the Brazil Herald. She was a writer and editor of the highest order, first working in New York in the 1960s and 1970s for Mining Engineering Magazine and UPS. Susan’s professional life also included writing for Peterson’s Guides in Princeton, New Jersey, and Coldwater Creek in Sandpoint, Idaho. Her range of interests and skills was broad. She was a voracious reader; an accomplished gardener; an expert knitter; and a superb cook. Her enthusiasms were many and she loved sharing them: politics; antiques; Bing Crosby’s singing diction; dogs, especially dachshunds; walking by the sea. Her mind was her most treasured asset. She leaves behind her devoted husband Andrew, son Edmund Phillips, sister Sarah Davis McBride, brothers William and Donald Davis, and scores of loyal friends and relatives all of whom feel lucky to have known Susan’s boundlessly generous spirit, courage, and wit. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, July 7 at 1:00 at Coffelt Funeral Service, 109 North Division Avenue, Sandpoint ID 83864.