Susan Marie Chally Skinner

1951 - 2016

Susan Marie Chally Skinner was born March 28, 1951, in Portland, Oregon. She lived with her parents, Lowell and Edna Chally near North Bend, Oregon, as a young child and attended Sunnyhills Elementary School. The family moved to Heppner, Oregon, in 1960 where she graduated from Heppner High School in 1969. She was involved in music, skiing and was a life guard at the local pool. She continued her education at Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon, where she eventually graduated with a degree in sociology.
She met her future husband, Dale Skinner, while attending NCC and they were married March 17, 1973. The couple resided in Salem and had two sons, Benjamin Isaac and Zachary David. It was here she began a successful career in public service. She worked for the state of Oregon in Salem from 1977 until the family moved to Salcha in the fall of 1984.
In 1987 Sue moved to North Pole, where she resumed her career in public service for the state of Alaska from which she retired after 24 years of dedication to her profession. Sue cared deeply about the people she worked with, and her honest compassion and kindness were readily apparent to all who met her. Her co-workers and friends admired her for her professionalism, compassion, generosity, competence, honesty, and hard work. When her co-workers came to her with a question, she always made them feel as if they were the most important person at that moment in time.
Sue was a civil war buff and avid consumer of the history from that era. She loved to take long drives in her Miata with the top down. She enjoyed all animals but was a cat lover extraordinaire.
Sue passed peacefully in her sleep April 2, 2016, in Auburn, Washington.
Sue is survived by her sons, Ben, of Sterling, Colorado, and Zak, of Puyallup, Washington; her grandson, Jake, of Fairbanks; a sister, Laurie Marcum, of Baker City, Oregon, and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Lowell and Edna Chally, and her nephew, Jake Marcum.
She will be interred next to her parents in La Grande, Oregon.
Services will be held at 2 p.m.
May 7 at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in North Pole.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to your local humane society or animal protection charity.