Susan Hays Obituary

Susan Pope Hays
Susan Pope Hays, 97 - devoted mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and wife - died peacefully at home of pneumonia on May 15, in the care of her family and hospice.
A passionate reader, traveler, gardener, devoted writer of handwritten thank you notes and emails from her iPad, Susan was a genuine intellectual who held strong views on just about every subject and, more often than not, she turned out to be correct. She lived for her family and friends; the many adventures she had with late husband, Dr. Richard M. Hays; and Cove Garden, her beloved cottage in Southwest Harbor, Maine. She never forgot a birthday or an anniversary, usually giving recipients thoughtful gifts that she had selected long in advance. She eagerly awaited her mail and persuaded the mailperson to deliver it to a basket on her back porch when she became too weak to walk down the driveway.
Susan carefully cared for the many treasures she gathered from all over the world - her books, her closets of designer coats, dresses, cashmere sweaters and shoes for the next generation(s). Over the decades, she carefully preserved gifts, photographs, New York Times clippings, Christmas cards, and countless other items, with the provenance of each keepsake firmly ingrained in her memory. Stacks of beautiful boxes, adorned with ribbons, to store these treasures multiplied over the years.
Susan was born on October 4, 1926, in Washington, DC, and moved as a young girl with her family to Homestead, Florida, bordering the Everglades. Her father, Lawrence Pope, descended from a family of early American makers of cars, bicycles and gun barrels who had settled in Boston and Hartford. Susan dutifully chronicled and assembled scrapbooks of generations of Popes, of which she was the 12th, memorialized on her car with the license plate "Pope 12."
Mr. Pope grew citrus after being partially disabled in a bridge collapse while on an engineering project. Her mother, Helen, taught at the Cushman School in Miami, where Susan also attended grade school.
Susan was immensely proud of her degree from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta in 1948. In 1949, she won a "Ten Girls with Taste" contest, sponsored by Glamour magazine. As part of the award, each "girl" was photographed for the special issue. She then went on to nursing school in New York at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. While waiting in a doctor's antechamber for a class to begin, she met her husband, who was finishing medical school. There they had the first of many lively political debates that continued for the duration of their 57 years of marriage. Dr. Hays died in 2012.
Susan and Richard married in 1955 and moved to Boston, where Richard was a fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Susan left her nursing career to start their family, which numbered four children in less than three years, including twins, a Pope tradition. Richard and Susan traveled to many parts of the world, where Richard - a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine - lectured on his scientific findings on water transport in the cell membrane.
A highlight of the family's life was a one-year sabbatical in Israel in 1966-1967. Susan, though not Jewish like Richard, began a lifelong love of Israel and the friends she made there. She took her husband and children to Iran during that year to meet her cousin, Arthur Upham Pope, an expert in Persian art who is buried in Isfahan. Decades later, without the children, Susan and Richard spent another sabbatical year in Paris, which proved to be another highlight of their life together.
Susan was an active member of the Greenwich Antiques Society and the Bruce Museum. She also was a lifetime member of the Metropolitan Museum and the Greenwich Historical Society.
Susan took huge pride in her four children, who survive her: Laurie, David, John and Susannah; five grandchildren, who were required to address her as "grandmother;" and one great-granddaughter. A beloved granddaughter died from cancer in 2022. She is also survived by her son-in-law, Fen Montaigne, and two daughters-in-law, Maureen Kennedy Hays and Bliss Summers.
Burial will be held privately. A celebration of her life will take place in the fall. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to: Friends of Acadia, at Tribute Gifts - Friends of Acadia or mailed to Friends of Acadia, P.O. Box 45, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609.