Washington - Washington - Susan Whittlesey Wolf passed away peacefully May 21, 2025 at her home in Washington, D.C.

Born on October 25, 1938 in Pittsfield, Susan was the eldest of four children of William Augustus Whittlesey III and Margaret Ballard Gage Crofut. She grew up in Pittsfield near cousins and grandparents who gathered each summer on Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. Although her adult life took her to many other locations, Gloucester remained where she felt most at-home and where she retired to from 1998 to 2011.

Susan attended Dawes Elementary, Plunkett Junior High, and Miss Hall's School, then graduated in 1960 from Smith College with a B.A. in English. She then pursued a career of teaching, writing, and pioneering cross-cultural exchanges, teaching English in Japan at the Bunkagakuin school in Tokyo just after college, then moving to Washington, D.C. to work for the newly formed Peace Corps, publishing books on both the Peace Corps and the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) programs.

Continuing her writing career, Susan took a job as an editor with Readers Digest Condensed Books in New York, where she met her husband of 24 years (1969-1993), Tom Wolf. In 1971, Susan gave birth to their eldest child Toby, just before they moved for Tom's work to West Berlin, Germany, where their second child Ted was later born in 1974. Susan's family then moved to Columbus, Ohio where Tom was an Economics professor at The Ohio State University from 1974-84. In 1976 Susan gave birth to their third child, Caroline. During their time in Columbus, Susan continued to write and edit, contributing to non-fiction books and writing for The Columbus Dispatch about her experience as an expatriate and mother in Cold War West Berlin.

Susan and family moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1984, living in Bethesda, Maryland and later in Northwest DC. Susan further expanded her writing and editing career publishing a romance novel set in a North Shore seaside town unmistakably resembling Gloucester and contributing to a non-fiction book on how to write romance fiction.

She was editor of Fitting In magazine and later of Inside ED, a publication of the U.S. Department of Education. In her personal life, she hosted events to ease the transition for immigrants to the DC area and taught literacy to at-risk youth in the DC public school system. Susan also wrote freelance articles for The Washington Post.

Upon retiring from the Department of Education in 1998, Susan fulfilled her long-time dream of moving to Gloucester with a view of the ocean. For a time, she had a regular column called "My View" in The Gloucester Daily Times and continued with freelance writing and editing projects. While in Gloucester, she met Bill Wertenbaker of Rockport who was also a writer and travel enthusiast. They were partners for over 20 years and together traveled in Europe, Japan, and the United States.

In 2011, Susan and Bill relocated together to D.C., where they lived in the Watergate apartment complex. Bill passed away in 2020.

During her 14 years at the Watergate, Susan led community initiatives, supported multicultural learning, literacy, and the arts, and continued to welcome newcomers to the United States. Even during her last months, Susan organized memorable gatherings with her family and friends and closely followed her grandchildren's activities.

Susan is survived by her three children, Toby Wolf (Tania), Ted Maris-Wolf (Rachel) and Caroline Wolf, siblings David Whittlesey (Regine) and Jane Whittlesey Winn (Bruce), and four grandchildren, whom she adored: Julia, Annika, Micah and Matthew.

A Celebration of Life for Susan was held at the Watergate in June. Family and friends will also gather to remember Susan at Pittsfield Cemetery on August 13 at 10 a.m. Please email SusanWolfMemorial@gmail.com for further details.

For those wishing to make a donation in Susan's honor, the family suggests World Learning(worldlearning.org), the non-profit operating the Experiment in International Living that gave Susan her first formative cross-cultural experience.