Barbara Suter was an award-winning educator, beloved mother and staunch environmentalist.

Barbara Suter was an award-winning educator, beloved mother and staunch environmentalist. Credit: Christine Suter

Barbara Suter lived by the mantra "Learning is all about the journey we take together," her family said.

"She believed that people have to learn how to communicate with each other in a way that each one can appreciate," said Suter's husband, Bob Suter, an editor-writer at Queens College's communications department. He added that Suter chose to teach English as a second language because "she was always interested in other cultures and enjoyed working with people from different backgrounds."

"She taught kids from all over the world. Some of her students who were the most challenging would later write to her and tell her how important she was to them during their development and learning in school," he said.

The award-winning educator, beloved mother and staunch environmentalist died Jan. 26, 2025, from myelodysplastic syndrome after being diagnosed in June. She was 78.

Barbara Suter was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 28, 1946. She grew up in Bayville and graduated from Locust Valley High School in 1964. Suter received a bachelor's degree from Stony Brook University in 1968 followed by a master's degree in liberal studies in 1988 and a master of science in teaching English to speakers of other languages in 1993.

Suter began her education career as a program administrator for the continuing education program at Stony Brook, where she created and coordinated off-campus sites for graduate courses for the liberal studies program. In 1993, she was hired as an ESL teacher by the East Meadow School District where she taught K-8, retiring in 2014. Suter also taught freshman composition as an adjunct professor at Suffolk County Community College for more than 20 years. In 2009, she was given the ESL Teacher of the Year Award from Molloy College and the Outstanding ESL Teacher Award from New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Suter also combined her passion for teaching and writing, serving as a contributor and consultant for the Long Island Writing Project.

"Barbara wrote everything out in longhand on paper. She was not a happy camper in the digital world," said her husband, who met his wife in a book design class at the now SUNY Old Westbury in 1976. They were married on Oct. 27, 1979, and lived in Northport before moving to Huntington in 1981. The couple had two children, a son, Matt, and a daughter, Christine, and relocated to Halesite in 1996.

"Being close to the water was always a significant aspect of our relationship and determining where we wanted to be," Bob said. "She was a nature lover and we greatly enjoyed going out in the winter to look for winter ducks."

Suter enjoyed spending time with her young granddaughter, Wynona Suter, traveling, and visiting exhibits at the Heckscher Museum of Art at Heckscher Park in Huntington. She was an avid reader, writer and lover of poetry, and had a passion for nature and conservation, which she passed down to her daughter.

"She had a deep curiosity about nature and the world around her and was always advocating for the environment, especially locally against developments that would harm the environment," said Suter's daughter, Christine, of Oyster Bay, who is the executive director at Friends of the Bay, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor estuary.

Suter's daughter shared that her mother was "incredibly warm and caring, with a great sense of humor and unquenchable thirst for knowledge," and that she always put her children first.

Dawn Heller was Suter's colleague at Bowling Green Elementary School in East Meadow and recalled Suter always being there for support in and out of the classroom.

"I'm a fellow cancer survivor, and she was a sincere and supportive friend to me when I was going through chemo," said Heller, a retired vocal music teacher from Huntington.

Suter's son remembered his mother as someone who "always let us go our own path."

"She could think beyond her own fears about certain things with regards to her kids when it came to their evolution as people," said Suter's son, Matt, a cinematographer who lives in Brooklyn.

A private cremation was held and a celebration of life is planned for a later date. Contributions can be made to the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Oyster Bay at roosevelt.audubon.org.

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