Obituary of Susan B. Gram

01-06-1938 to 02-01-2020 Susan was born in Detroit to the late Leona Schmitz Baird and Byron B. Baird. She grew up in Ypsilanti, MI and graduated Michigan State University in 1959. Never a fan of cold weather, she and several friends accepted teaching contracts in San Diego, CA and immediately after graduation headed west to warmer climes. Not long after, she met and married Emil, a young naval aviator from Dallas who was stationed at NAS North Island. That started a 60 year marriage that included three children, a 30 year navy career, and seventeen world-wide family relocations. Susan was quite adventurous and was always involved in some new challenging endeavor. A sampling of her many exploits: - Active participation and leadership roles with navy officer's wives clubs - When the children were barely school-age and while Emil was deployed to the Mediterranean in the USS Roosevelt, she packed up the family and moved to Italy to follow the ship's port visits - for NINE months… - At middle age, she decided to experience the exhaustive job vetting processes with both the US State Department and the CIA (just to prove she could do it) but refused the commission offers - Pursued graduate-level degree in her "spare time" to round out job qualifications for which she never accepted a position - When the navy made Emil a Naval Attaché to Pakistan, Susan was a willing partner to take on the rigorous and demanding social duties required of the diplomatic posting - Enjoyed numerous fun-filled reunions with college sorority sisters and their spouses. Emil always said that Susan had her life phases: There was the arts phase when she was deeply interested in sculpting and ceramics, the author phase when writing short stories consumed her time - but she was published only once in a local newspaper. Then there was the travel phase when she made some combination of road, rail or air excursion to various domestic or foreign destinations - sometimes with the children and sometimes alone but always when Emil was deployed. Susan was an avid novel reader and crossword puzzle solver. Her mind was always working with challenges of some sort. And throughout the children's formative years she was always active with their activities whether it was Little League baseball, gymnastics, fishing, flying model airplanes or school activities. If the kitchen disposal crapped out, she fixed it. If the often-stretched home finances needed fine tuning, she was right on top of it to make sure the bills were paid. She was the glue that kept the family together and functioning because dad was gone a lot. Throughout the good and bad times, she made sure the cards and letters flowed and dad was happily welcomed home from his job travels. In her very senior years and final life phase, physical mobility became a serious challenge for Susan, causing her to become mostly home bound. She never complained about her final ordeal and gracefully accepted that her body was no longer willing to accommodate her desired adventurous spirit. Her family is grateful that she did not spend one single day in a nursing facility. She passed away quietly in her sleep, pain free, with her loving family nearby. Susan is survived by husband Emil, three children Michael (Laura), Jane (Greg), and Robert, five step grandchildren and five step great grandchildren. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.