Susan N. Smith

It is with great sadness that the family of Susan N. Smith announce her passing on October 6th, 2024. Susan Naomi Smith was born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, NY on March 10th, 1948, to Harvey W. Smith and Carol A. Irwin. An only child, Susan and her family moved to Westbury, NY around 1951. She attended Bowling Green Elementary School and eventually W. Tresper Clarke High School in East Meadow. The daughter of a professional boy scout, Susan spent countless summers at Ten Mile River Scout Camp in upstate New York, developing a love for the outdoors and the Catskill Mountains area. As a teenager, Susan also travelled to Puerto Rico with a church group to teach Sunday school during one of her summer breaks.

Upon high school graduation she enrolled in Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, NY where she met her future husband, both graduating in 1969. Susan and Tom Ambrosino were married that same year and had two children, settling in the town of Neversink, NY. Susan worked at Sullivan County Community College briefly and eventually became a teacher’s aide at Tri-Valley Elementary School. She was a busy member of the community and an integral part of the Storyhour program at the Daniel Pierce Library in Grahamsville. Furthering her love of education and children, Susan returned to college, eventually earning her Master's in Education from Mount St. Mary College in Newburg, NY. For the coming decades, Susan would be a devoted educator, serving the students at Tri-Valley Central School. Her compassionate and understanding nature, drew her to take special interest in any underprivileged and underserved students.

In 1997 Susan remarried, and in a few years bought property and built a house in Claryville, NY with her husband, Dwayne Smith of the same town. Susan and Dwayne enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, gardening, feeding the wildlife, entertaining friends on their wrap-around porch and taking on the role of grandparenting like consummate professionals. Susan could often be found with binoculars or a flashlight scoping out the local flora and fauna, only to generate thousands of photos which eventually made it into the hands or inboxes of her children and grandchildren.

Susan was an avid reader, book-giver and inscriber, nostalgic, storyteller, foodie and chef, Nana, friend, neighbor, colleague, honorary boy scout, grandparent, wife, daughter, mom, and whatever else crossed her path. Later in her life, she found herself a dedicated volunteer at the Time and the Valleys Museum in Grahamsville NY, a town she so dearly loved.

Susan is survived by her husband, Dwayne Smith, her children Chris Ambrosino (Kerry Ambrosino) and Erin Parker (Mark Parker), Stepdaughter Jeanne (Smith) Butler (Roger Butler), Grandchildren Liam Shea Ambrosino, Macey Elizabeth Parker, Laney Grace Parker, Daphne Hall Ambrosino, Jackson Thomas Parker, John James Williams, and Lucas Lee Butler. In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation in her name to the Time and the Valleys Museum in Grahamsville, NY using this link: https://www.timeandthevalleysmuseum.org/support/

Arrangements under the care of Colonial Memorial Funeral Home, for further information call 845-434-7363 or visit www.colonialfamilyfuneralhomes.com