Amherst, Susan Kastor, who passed away on May 8 at age 78, was a resident of the Clark House in Amherst for 13 years.   She enjoyed exploring the town through long walks and the broader area via the PVTA bus system.   She had a deep love for the intricacies of the natural world and for the music of diverse peoples and times.  She made a great many friends and acquaintances around town who will miss her warm and generous spirit.

Susan lived most of her life in Trenton, NJ, growing up with her parents Helen and Henry Richard on Center Street.  A graduate of Trenton High School and Trenton State Teachers College, she taught kindergarten at the Mott Street School, before moving on to life as a full-time mom and homemaker in nearby Lawrence Township with her husband Sven Kastor.  Following their divorce, she moved back to Trenton and worked as a clerk at Dwyer’s Stationers, a long-term mainstay of the downtown business district. 

She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, also in downtown Trenton, where she was an enthusiastic singer in the choir, having performed in earlier years with the Mercer County Chorus.  She spent much of her free time exploring the Trenton-Hamilton Marshlands, observing the ways in which it changed with the seasons, and always carrying a bag to pick up stray trash. 

In Amherst, she particularly delighted in helping to raise her granddaughter.  As health issues increasingly limited her mobility, Susan adapted by watching the world with an even keener eye, as it moved more slowly past her.  She leaves behind her son David Kastor, daughter-in-law Jennie Traschen, both physicists at the University of Massachusetts, and her granddaughter Kalyani Kastor, a student at Amherst Regional High School. 

Donations in her memory can be made to the First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, the Friends of the Abbott Marshlands, or the North Amherst Community Farm.  Visiting hours will be held at the Douglass Funeral Service in Amherst on Monday, May 18, from 3:00-5:00PM. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.