Susan A. Gearon

Susan Alice Gearon, 61, of Concord and Rockport, Massachusetts, died on October 23, 2026, after a long battle with cancer, her third.

Born to Ann Burke Gearon (Hoyt) and Edward “Ted” James Gearon, Susan grew up in Concord. She met her closest childhood friend on a playground swing, and from then on, she never stopped laughing or looking for adventure. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the late 1980s, she earned a master’s degree in international public health from Tulane University.

Her career in maternal and child health, and later in monitoring and evaluation, spanned public health, economic development, education, agriculture, and other consequential fields, with organizations including Project Concern, IntraHealth and Social Solutions International. Colleagues remember how clearly she could show whether a project was working, and how patiently she taught others to see it. She worked and/or lived on six of the seven continents, in places as varied as Chapel Hill, San Diego, Martha’s Vineyard, Kabul, Baghdad, and Gaza, and in villages and small towns in Nigeria, Indonesia, Australia, and along the Thai-Burma border. She ultimately settled close to where she grew up and moved to Rockport in 2025.

Susan called her friends family, and she lived that way. She flew across the country to sit with a friend through radiation treatment. She offered her bed to visiting friends to take the couch, even while fighting cancer. She never passed a street dog in Kabul without stopping to give it love. Animals were a passion, and she tracked wolves in Yellowstone and watched brown bears in Katmai National Park, adventures that deepened her friendships. She loved dinners out with friends and family, especially anywhere serving oysters on the half shell, along with good wine, a gin and tonic, and long conversations. Those who knew her describe a selfless, kind, generous woman with a fun, graceful spirit who put others first. Friends say she could never quite pick where to eat or what to order off a menu, but that dinner was always better for her being there.

Susan was predeceased by her parents. She is survived by her brother, Christopher John Gearon, and his wife, Jean Slaughter Gearon, of Derwood, Maryland; her nephew, James “Jake” Hooker Gearon, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; her niece, Katherine “Kate” Houghton Gearon, of Los Angeles; her aunt and uncle, Vivian Burke and James “Ted” Burke, of Concord; four cousins, Stephen and Mark Burke of New Hampshire, John Gearon of New Jersey and Meghan Gearon Herzing of Virginia; and a wide circle of friends in the Concord area and around the world.

Private services will be held at a future date. 

Donations may be made to Wolf Conservation Center or to Care Dimensions Hospice House in Lincoln, MA.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.