Susan Witten

Scottsdale, AZ - Susan Schwartz Witten passed away peacefully on Tuesday, February 11, 2025 in Scottsdale, AZ. She was born June 4, 1958 on Governors Island, Manhattan, New York City to Ruth and Arnold Schwartz, the second of their 3 children.

While still a baby, her family relocated from NY to Minnesota, where she graduated from Edina West High School and then graduated (1981) from the University of Minnesota at Morris with a major in French. During her time in college, she lived in France for 9 months with a family with whom she maintained a life-long friendship.

After college, Susan briefly moved to Dallas, Texas before traveling to South Africa where she lived for six months. Leaving South Africa, she went back to Dallas and then in 1984, moved to California. During that time, she married and gave birth to a daughter, Adrianna, in 1988.

A divorce resulted in Susan and Adrianna moving to Phoenix, AZ in 1990, where her parents had already relocated. In Phoenix, she began working as a pre-school teacher and she loved working with young students at several different secular and Jewish pre-school and kindergarten programs in Phoenix and Scottsdale. In 1994, Susan remarried and her husband, Dwayne, adopted Adrianna.

Susan, just as her father and her grandmother, was a gifted artist and enjoyed painting (oils and watercolors). In addition to her art, she also enjoyed hiking, plays, concerts and movies and was an avid reader of fiction novels.

In 2006, Susan suffered a spinal-cord injury as a result of an automobile accident and she lived the rest of her life in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. Although she could no longer teach on a regular basis, she maintained contact with her students by teaching occasional classes for many years. And although she could no longer paint, she tried to keep as active as she could with continued 'hiking', various activities designed for people with physical disabilities and she even went on cruises to Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska.

In spite of her quadriplegia, she maintained a positive attitude even though she could never quite figure out how to drive her wheelchair without running over someone's toes. For many years after the accident, Susan lived at home with her husband being her primary caregiver and for the last 10 years, she lived in a skilled nursing facility in Scottsdale, where she enjoyed regular visits from her family and friends, going out for meals, to an occasional movie and attending various holiday and family celebrations.

Susan was pre-deceased by her mother, Ruth Rubin Schwartz, and is survived by her father, Arnold Schwartz, her daughter, Adrianna Witten Bowers (husband Matt), her husband, Dwayne, two step-children, Adam Witten (wife Eriko) and Alycia Witten Pyle (husband James) and six grandchildren (Nolan, Lincoln, Wyatt, Everly, Kei and Riku), her sister, Elizabeth Siegler (Mitch), her brother, Dr. Andrew Schwartz (Lisa) and many nieces and nephews.

A graveside service will be held on Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Phoenix, AZ.

Should you wish to honor Susan's life and memory, the family requests donations to The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation or to The Hospice of The Valley.