Susan H. Schumann

Susan H. Schumann
(1930 - 2025)
Susan Harrison Schumann, who loved dogs, horses, and most people, most of the time, passed away peacefully on August 28, 2025. She was born in Verona, New Jersey in 1930 to Charlotte Tolles Harrison and Ridgley Webster Harrison II. She rode in the West Orange Troop and attended the Kimberly School where she excelled at field hockey and flunked math. Notwithstanding the latter disappointment, Susan was all her life an avid student and reader, and herself possessed great epigrammatic and story-telling gifts.
In 1972, after raising three children, Susan left the East, settling in Aspen, Colorado with Ward Ford Schumann. She rode Quarter horses in the back-country while her husband - an artist by love and vocation - tried his hand at calf-roping and for many years served as head of Music Associates of Aspen. Susan and Ford together formed the "Them Thar Hills" tent of the Laurel and Hardy Society, and hosted many hilarious screenings for fellow aficionados.
During several years' stay in San Diego, they developed a lively interest in horse racing and enjoyed watching their own thoroughbred at the track. Susan also supported horse showing and enjoyed watching her hunters show under the guidance of Leslie Stohlgren. Susan kept many horses at home and was always thankful for the help provided by Francisco Herrera who worked for her for many years.
Susan and Ford adopted the Catholic faith and gave heartfelt support to parishes in Scottsdale, where they built a winter home in 1982, in San Diego where they attended the Church of the Nativity, and in Snowmass, Colorado, where they developed a warm and lasting friendship with the monks of the Trappist St. Benedict's Monastery nearby.
Susan's first love - apart from her children - was animals, of which she had many over her 95 years. • From her first Cocker Spaniel, Bobo, to her surviving mixed breed rescue, Carly, she has kept a menagerie of dogs (as many corgis as the late Queen Elizabeth), a small herd of horses, and one cat. She was an ardent advocate for the rights and feelings of all animals. Only in the very last years of her life was she forced to give up mucking the stalls of her three horses, and if Thomas Jefferson was happiest in his garden, Susan was happiest in her stable.
Susan's three children - Mark, Gregg, and Kristy - survive her, and four children - Jay, Margaret, Betsy, and Richard - from Ford's previous marriage. They inherit the memory of a singular person and personality, a jockey-sized woman with out-sized opinions, incandescent exasperation, and fierce independence. She is also survived by many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Much loved, she will be missed