Obituary: Susi Zedlacher

– February 1, 2025

On February 1, 2025, after a brief, valiant bout with cancer, Susi Zedlacher passed away peacefully in her home in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Susi loved her home, a masterpiece that her husband Franz and she crafted together that stands proudly as a token of their abiding love for one another and their family, overlooking the Roaring Fork Valley and a full unimpeded, magnificent view of the mighty Mount Sopris across the valley, with the town of Carbondale below, where her parents Barbara and David Stephenson spent their first year of marriage together, just down from the Crystal River confluence and that river’s waters that pass by the historic town of Marble, where, during its heyday, over a century ago, her grandfather Frank Stephenson was Mayor.
Susan Burling Stephenson was born on September 6, 1951, in Hanover, New Hampshire, where her parents met, and she spent the first year of her life near Hanover living on a scenic New England farm owned by her Grandma and Grandpa Naramore—on her mother’s side of the family. This family farm was a special place that Susi remembered lovingly until her dying day.
Susi has said her deepest loves are family, nature, animals, children, and music. She and her husband Franz had an immeasurably powerful, enduring love for one another, and she cherished her oldest son Franz Peter, a Sergeant in the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department, and her younger son Stefan (who predeceased Susi after graduating summa cum laude from this college class while fighting a long, valiant battle of his own against cancer throughout which Susi was a constant spiritual and emotional support), and her surviving siblings, Patsy Ford, Dave, and Geof. Susi treasured her family roots dating back to the Mayflower on her mother’s side and her long, strong family ties on her father’s side to the Colorado mountains where she lived most of her life skiing, hiking, fly fishing, and golfing. Besides treasuring the lives of her own children, Susi devoted her life to young children at Aspen Country Day School, where she was a favorite star teacher for over twenty years, inspiring innumerable students to become stars themselves later in life when she still maintained contact with them. Her love of music was reflected in her participation most of her adult life as a member of the choir at the Aspen Chapel of the Prince of Peace, where Franz and Susi were married forty-four years ago, both of their children were baptized, and their son Stefan had his memorial service—all of which were conducted by the same pastor, who also married Stefan to his wife Cassie in Virginia and who is now helping Franz plan Susi’s memorial service. Susi’s love of animals was manifest in her long and strong bond with her German Shepard, Shadow, and her love of nature included not only the flora and fauna of the Rocky Mountains but also of the sea. She graduated from United States International University, also formerly known as California Western University, in San Diego, where she enjoyed its beautiful shores on the Pacific Ocean and scuba diving.
Those who were fortunate enough to know Susi well also knew she had a wide network of friends whom she prized and with whom she passionately shared the joys of life and whose lives were incalculably enriched by having shared precious moments with her. This network included her musical friends in the choir and those she regularly socialized with in her book club. Susi read voraciously, and she adorned her beautiful home with bookshelves full of treasured books by her favorite authors.
Susi asked that, in lieu of flowers, gifts in her memory be made to Shining Stars Foundation (shiningstarsfoundation.org) or Tunnel to Towers (www.t2t.org). Susi’s memorial service will be held at the Aspen Chapel sometime in May of this year; the specific date and time should be available sometime after Easter on the Chapel’s website or by contacting the Chapel.