Susan Horn-Moo

Susan Horn-Moo, 85, passed away on August 19, 2025 with family around her. She was the daughter of Max Horn and Mona Lyons Horn. Born in Newark, NJ in 1939, Susan was class valedictorian at Weequahic High School, before moving to Massachusetts to attend Wellesley College, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a major in physics and a minor in math. The summer after her freshman year she met Charles Moo, a recent MIT graduate from Jamaica, and they were married two years later.

Susan was a graduate student in Physics at Brandeis University for one year before leaving to work at the MIT Draper Instrumentation Laboratory, where she was a member of the Apollo Mission emergency landing program for two years. Susan then reconsidered her academic strengths and interests and, instead of returning to the physics program at Brandeis, entered Harvard Law School, graduating in 1968. When none of the 24 women in her graduating class were hired by law firms, the Dean of Harvard Law School strong-armed the firms to each hire one woman. Susan worked for only a couple of years at Bingham, Dana & Gould before leaving to begin her successful and rewarding career as a community economic development lawyer. That vocation included being general counsel at the Boston Center for Community Economic Development, then establishing a law firm dedicated to helping community development organizations with Marcus Weiss, and later working at the Economic Development Industrial Corporation of Boston.

Throughout her life, Susan considered herself a rebel, challenging the status quo and arguing for what she believed was right. This included announcing to a group of relatively conservative young women in her college dorm that she favored free love, marrying someone from a different race, culture, and religious background at a time when that was rare, and being active in the movement for women's rights. While Susan's bluntness and confidence in her opinions could rub some people the wrong way, she was fiercely loyal to, and deeply loved by, her closest family and friends.

Susan is survived by her daughter Lauren Moo, son-in-law Scott Slotnick and granddaughter Sonya, all of Brookline, MA, her son David Moo and daughter-in-law Dawn Kinstle of Brooklyn, NY, and her brother Michael Horn of Philadelphia, PA.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the National Organization for Women (NOW): https://secure.everyaction.com/1orbb0AJpkq6v8KNa1Yk1A2?sourceid=1235737