JUDITH SUSSMAN Obituary

Name: Memorial service for JUDITH SUSSMAN
Start: 2025-11-04T10:00:00.000Z
Location: Clarendale Arcadia

SUSSMAN--Judith Ann (nee Gordon), died peacefully in her bed on October 31, 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona. She was 90. Born January 9, 1935, in Queens, New York, Judith was an award-winning interior designer and a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, a loving and caring mother, grandmother, great- grandmother and friend. Predeceased by her husband Sanford Sussman, she is survived by her partner, Joel Price, her children, Meredith, Allison, Michael and Jennifer Axinn; her grandchildren Morgan Axinn Cattai, Lucien Axinn Cattai, Anastasia Axinn Faeravaag, Zahra and Tallulah Axinn; her nephew Larry Kampf and a great- granddaughter Sophia Aurora Cattai. A memorial service will be held at 10am on Tuesday, November 4, at Clarendale Arcadia 3233 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix. In lieu of flowers, we are requesting that donations be sent to Hospice of the Valley Arizona, a truly wonderful organization that helped ease the burden of Judy's final journey and does this for many other families.

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Published by New York Times on Nov. 4, 2025.

Memories and Condolences
for JUDITH SUSSMAN

2 Entries

Michael Axinn

November 5, 2025

Our mother, grandmother and great-grandmother Judy left a wonderful family and a legacy of companionship friendship and inspiration for the many people around her including very importantly the caretakers and friends who were by her side in her final days, Patti, Martha, Diana, and personal assistant Laura.
As her children we were with her through the very difficult times in her life but also some very wonderful ones. In some ways, it took me seeing her through other people´s eyes to appreciate how much she meant to everyone who knew her.
One thing I have to mention is her beauty. Again this is something I took for granted as her son. She was just my mom: beautiful, super-smart, stylish, but still just my mom. I discovered only later that at least one of my college friends considered her the most beautiful woman he had ever met. I´ll leave it it that besides just saying that she had great style and to the very end took incredible joy in the clothing she bought and the ways in which, as an award-winning designer, she brought beauty and originality to the homes she lived in and did the same for many of her clients, who often became close friends.
I like to think her beauty, creativity and intelligence lives on in the generations of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who survive her now.
I also cannot really describe my mother without at least a mention of the pets in her life and by extension ours. At the height of my childhood, around the age of 8, we had three dogs (Skippy, Samatha and Mr. Stubbs) two cats (Smokey and Snowflake) and an array of paraqueets, goldfish and gerbils. Among the pets that followed were Mudhead, Samantha 2, Boris and Natasha and her beloved black cat Koko, who brought her tremendous joy in her final days.
Let me also briefly describe her life, for those of you who don´t know.
She was born in 1935 during the depression in Queens, New York to Paula and Sam Gordon. Like many families at that time, they struggled to make ends meet. Although Sam was trained as a lawyer he was compelled to find work in garment sales. In spite of this, they made sure that Judy and her sister Thea attended the best private schools in Manhattan, to which Judy daily boarded a series of buses and trains to go to. Judy was a great student and skipped two grades so that by the age of 16 she had enrolled at Barnard College of Columbia University, to which she also commuted.
She also met our father Donald that year. By 18 she was married and by 20, a fact that still amazes me, she received her diploma in sociology from Barnard while pregnant with my sister Meri.
In 1966 their marriage was over and in 1967 she had married our step-father Sandy Sussman whom she chose over a considerable number of suitors.
Sandy adored Judy and took lots of responsibility for our upbringing. Sandy´s two sons, our step-brothers Steven and Jordan, would come to visit, as would their nephews Michael Kampf and Larry Kampf, Larry who adored Judy to the end. As we got a bit older, mom went back to work and was soon running show floors as a designer at stores like Macys and JC Penny. They moved to Phoenix in 1979, where she established her award-winning business. Judt Sussman´s Designworks. When I say award-winning, I am referring to the award she received as top North American designer from the American Society of Interior Designers for a Mexican restaurant she designed.
Sandy passed away in 2006, by which time they had welcomed five grandchildren into the world: Morgan, Lucien, Zahra, Talluah and Anastasia. They adored their grandchildren and traveled the world in order to spend time with them, showing up for holidays, birthdays and graduations, though it was not always as easy for them to cross the ocean.
About 15 years ago she met Joel Price who became Judy´s companion for the remainder of her Joel. She and Joel spent many happy years together, traveling the world and living in a beautiful home in Scottsdale. We are indebted to Joel for his incredible generosity and commitment to take care of her to the end.
I´d like end with something my childhood friend Owen Kalt wrote about her this week, which sums up what I said before about being able to truly appreciate her through the eyes of others.
"Of all the mothers of all the friends I had growing up, your mother was my favorite. She was the sweetest and certainly the prettiest.
Of the countless sleepovers we had as kids, one of them stands out in my memory. When I was small, I could not sleep unless I was clutching a sleeveless T-shirt with both hands. One evening, when I was staying at your house on Pine Drive, I was distressed to realize my mother had not packed me a T-shirt to hold. Your mother gave me a kitchen towel to use as a substitute. I was doubtful, but she reassured me that it would work. And it did.
Growing up, I called your mother "Mrs. Axinn," until I had to learn to call her "Mrs. Sussman." I remember sitting near her at my parents´ dining room table one evening in around 1971. I said something like: "Please pass the salt, Mrs. Sussman." Your mom looked at me, smiled, and said, "I think it´s time you started calling me `Aunt Judy.´"
So I say goodbye mom for myself, goodbye Nonnie for her grandchildren and great-granddaughter and goodbye aunt Judy for my friends and our cousins who knew her and loved her and are here today to honor her memory.