Susan Wright

Susan Wright

Susan Wright, 56, of Barboursville, passed away on Thursday, September 9, 2010, at her home.

Born in Baltimore and raised outside Annapolis, Susan spent grade school summers sailing with family on the Chesapeake Bay. She attended Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, where she created her own major, Contemporary Humanities, to concentrate on the 20th century, minoring in Journalism. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

After college, she returned to Baltimore to write about news and neighborhoods for local newspapers and Food and Fine Living Magazine, until she was hired by the mayor to work in his press office. While handling PR for the infamous Mayor William Donald Schaefer, she also worked on her Masters in Administrative Science at Johns Hopkins University. Her success in local politics led to a stint as press secretary to a Pennsylvania congressman in the first $1 million congressional race. It was a nail-biter: her candidate won by less than a half percent.

Susan returned to her roots after that, plying her writing skills in the world of boats and all things marine. At the Boat Owner's Association of the United States (BOAT/US) she wrote educational materials for boaters on topics like life jackets, emergency maneuvers and equipment, boating safety, plus product testing articles aimed at educating boating consumers on how to select and properly use boating equipment.

There she met her husband, David, and the two became a team, changing venues about the country, wherever their marine merchandising work took them, including St. Augustine, Florida, Santa Cruz, California, Charleston, South Carolina, and Sarasota, Florida. Their partnerships along the way included dot.com startup and Forbes website award-winner Sailnet.com, and MariSafe.com, both of which they helped build from the ground up.

Family and business matters brought both Susan and David back to Virginia in 2005, which is when Susan joined Plow and Hearth as a copywriter.

She loved to read, travel, sail, swim, sun (anything at the beach) and compete in dog agility trials with her four-legged child, Scooter the wily fox terrier.

In addition to her husband, Susan is survived by her parents, George and Jane Gardill Koran of Port Charlotte, Florida; her brother, Bruce Koran of High Point, North Carolina; and her sister, Andrea Robey of Severna Park, Maryland.

A gathering of friends to celebrate Susan's life will be held at Hill and Wood Funeral Home, 4 until 6 p.m. Saturday, September 18, 2010.

In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions in Susan?s name to the Hospice of the Piedmont, 675 Peter Jefferson Way, Suite 300, Charlottesville, VA 22911

Friends may sign the register book at www.hillandwood.com.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.