SUSAN COYLE

I hope you had a chance to know Susan.  A wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend to all.  She was a true light to the world.  If you were lucky enough to know Susan, her love, her compassion, her gifts, her artistic ability and her love for life and faith you are truly blessed to have known the beautiful influence she was on so many people! 

Susan lived an incredible and adventurous 72 years! She was born on December 29, 1947 to Mildred Schulz (Avise) and Max C. Schulz in Sheridan, Iowa.  Susan was a true midwestern girl, moving to Des Moines, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Denver as her father's job at Skelly Oil Company expanded operations throughout the region.  Susan graduated from Kellogg High School in Roseville, MN in 1966.  She married Robert T. Coyle on September 5, 1970 in Omaha, NE and they moved to Wisconsin and eventually settled in Neenah-Menasha where they called home for the past 48 years. They made a life together.  They had many adventures--children, travels, small businesses, more travels, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Jeremy, her oldest son, said, “My mother was an incredible person.  She taught me much.  I'm sure it's where I got my sense of adventure, my constant need to question everything, my creativity, my compassion for others and my love for life.”  Elizabeth, her middle child said, “Thank you for all you taught me and gave me...especially the gift of faith.”  David, her youngest child said, “She had eclectic tastes, was artistic and creative, spiritual, loved to cook, but most of all she loved everyone she met.”  

Susan was able to be at home with the kids when they were young.  It allowed her a chance to truly bond with each of them and instill in them courage, compassion, and empathy, characteristics they still carry today.  She was very supportive of their passions and attended many events, competitions, and activities they participated in.  Susan was also a devout follower of God and made sure to provide her children with the opportunity to explore their faith and allow them the space to think and practice their faith how it best met their needs.    

As her children grew older, Susan began looking for opportunities to expand her horizons.  She was given an opportunity to serve as a cook to the young men at the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity House at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI.  She was so much more than their cook; she was a mentor, a mother, a counselor, and confidant.  She was there for four years and was able to watch a group of boys start as freshmen in college and help mold them into men by the time they graduated from college.  Through this experience she learned how to help her own children navigate young adulthood and she gained many building blocks for life.  In retrospect, according to her, this was an experience that she got more out of than she gave.  The men of Delta Tau Delta might disagree.     

Susan shared her gifts with many around her. She was blessed with a creative eye and attention to personal details.  She spent many years sharing and teaching her artistry to others and turned her talents into multiple successful business ventures.   From the early cross-stitch years and store in Oshkosh to her successful basket weaving career and store in Sister Bay.  When she closed the store in Sister Bay, she took her talent for basket weaving on the road.  She attended and instructed at dozens of state basket weaving conventions starting in 1995 at the North Carolina convention.  Her and Bob spent fifteen great years traveling around the United States teaching and sharing her love for basket weaving with many others.  Their travels gave them the opportunity to experience diverse and unique cultures and dine on local fare.  She would recreate recipes she tasted on the road, add her own twist, and made sure to regale her guests with the story of the recipe's discovery.  She loved the food in the Southwest because of the unique flavors they had.    

She turned her love for artistry to quilt making.  Her quilts always had a personal touch.  She was always looking for the next fabric, pattern, or class to help her hone her skills.  This was why she had beautiful quilts for herself wherever she went and people would comment on how pretty they were.  She has also given many of her quilts away to her family and they will continue to comfort them for years to come like she had done for so many years.  

More recently, Susan has taken up beading, knitting, and has dabbled in watercolor painting and drawing-- talents that surprised even her closest friends and family members.  Teaching at the Presbytery Synod School was a growth experience for her.  She researched and taught classes on the art of making Mandalas. This gave her the opportunity to serve as the “Artist in Residence” in 2017 at the Presbyterian Synod School. Her creative painting was used as a symbol for that year and every participant was able to sign the painting.  Participants commented on how she was a bright light and a gift of hope! 

When she was not creating or teaching art she did a lot of traveling.  In the early years, her and Bob spent many days traveling back and forth to Colorado and Kansas to see her mother, father, and various family members.  With two or more trips per year, they wore a path on interstate 80.  Many of these trips were spent with children in the back seat. They spent many nights in Amana Colonies, IA.  She enjoyed visiting the small gift shops in the area and shopping for different trinkets. Once the kids had grown up, she loved driving out West with Bob.  They made many trips each winter to the Southwestern United States.   Most of the time they would travel to Arizona and then off to California with a stop in Las Vegas.  During these cross-country drives they stopped at many places.  One of their favorite things to do was to stop at the Spanish Missions (17th-18th Century Christian Churches) throughout the Southwest. They enjoyed walking around the missions and learning about the building and people who were once there.  

Many winters were spent in Southern California. Most of the time with Bob's sister and brother-in-law.  They had an annual membership to the San Diego Safari Park in Escondido and Susan spent numerous hours sitting and watching the elephants.  It was her favorite animal and over the years she was able to watch the elephant herd grow as a number of babies were born at the park through their conservation programs.

Susan enjoyed spending time with her children and grandchildren.  She loved watching them grow up, become parents themselves, and grow into who they are today.  She was able to share her love for artistry with her grandchildren and often had many projects for them to do whenever they visited.  

Above all, Susan was a dedicated wife to Bob for nearly 50 years.  Through thick and thin, they were always by each other's side and there were far more good days than bad.  Susan pushed Bob to try new things, experience new cultures, and explore his creative side. 

Her heart finally needed a rest.  Memories of her life will always be on the minds of her husband Robert Coyle, son Jeremy (Julie), daughter Elizabeth Kuppernus (Troy), son David (Jessica), brother Max Schulz (Pamela), sister-in-law Maureen Armstrong (Doug), and brother-in-law Dan, grandchildren Dylan (Alyssa), Zachary, Morgan, Tyler, Riley, Trinity, and Anson, six great-grandchildren and the entire Clarbour family.

In lieu of flowers or donations, we are asking, and what Susan would want, that each of you go out and create a memory with a friend or family member in her honor.  Take a day trip to Door County, host a family picnic, go on a vacation, visit a long lost friend or relative, take a cooking class with your spouse, go camping, take a road trip to nowhere, learn how to play an instrument, go to Vegas, renew your vows, or find something you're good at and teach someone else, something Susan did her entire life.  Our hope is that hundreds of adventures will be had and thousands of memories will be created in Susan's memory.  A celebration of life will be held later this summer or early fall.