Susan Skelton

1945 - 2025

Susan Skelton

June 18, 1945 - May 19, 2025

Bradenton, Florida - Auburn, Alabama native Susan Skelton passed away on May 19, 2025 at the age of 79 in Bradenton, Florida. She was born on June 18, 1945 in Montgomery, near where she was raised in Auburn, Alabama.

Susan was a lifelong student who excelled in literature and languages. After earning a B.A. with Highest Honor in Literature at Auburn University, she obtained her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Southern California in Comparative Literature. Along the way, she was awarded a special scholarship to study Japanese at East West Center, University of Hawaii and in Japan and to study European languages and Comparative Literature with Fulbright, Wilson, Danforth, NDEA grants and fellowships at The University of Strasbourg.

Sensing a calling to the Episcopal/Anglican faith, she attended a Summer School in Religious Studies at Wadham College, Oxford University, England. She continued with career development courses at Denver University, the University of Colorado, and UCLA.

After a teaching career that included Dakota Wesleyan University, University of Wisconsin, University of California, University of Southern California, she became interested in the developments in computer science. Beginning in Boulder, Colorado, she had a challenging second career in IT writing technical manuals, programming, systems analyst, and beta testing.

She was actively involved in study groups of ancient Greek, the Oxford Inklings, and many classes and activities at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas Texas, and, finally, was deeply engaged at Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota. Her true avocation was writing poetry. Her work was published many places most recently in the Anglican Digest.

She is preceded in death by her her parents, Robert and Mary Skelton of Auburn, Alabama.

She is survived by her siblings Tom Skelton of San Diego, CA, Rebecca Skelton of St. Petersburg, FL, and Melissa Pershina of Fairhope, AL, as well as her niece Andrea and nephew Robert Skelton.

Memorial services will be held at 11:30 a.m. on September 19, 2025 at Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota. Her ashes will be placed in St. Francis Garden, their memorial garden.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in her memory to Church of the Incarnation in Dallas Texas, Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, or any cat rescue organization.