Susan Sugar, 1933–2023

Susan Sugar of Lincoln died on November 7, 2023 at the age of 90.

Susan Bowen Kimball was born in New York City on July 31, 1933, the daughter of Charles Kimball Jr. and Louise Van Voorhees. Her father died when she was five years old. She grew up in Greenwich, Conn., attending Greenwich Country Day School and Abbott Academy in Andover, Mass.

She graduated from Vassar College in 1955, where she gained a B.A. degree in musicology. She married Keith Wheelock, son of Ward Wheelock, a Philadelphia-based advertiser, in 1956. They had two children: a daughter, Helen, and a son, Jamie. Keith was a Foreign Service officer, and they were posted to the Belgian Congo for three years and, later, for another three years to Santiago, Chile. They returned to the States and lived in Lincoln and Greenwich.

Susan was divorced in 1975 and moved to Lincoln in that year. She remarried in 1985 to Peter C. Sugar, a Hungarian-born architect of Lincoln. It was the second marriage for both of them.

Susan was a singer (a soprano) and member of the semiprofessional Chorus Pro Musica of Boston for several years and the choir of the First Parish Church Lincoln. She had many interests in addition to being an athlete and an excellent tennis player, winning several town tournaments with various partners. She worked as a research librarian for the advertising firm of Temple, Barker, and Sloan in Lexington and then as a librarian for the Lincoln Public Library. She retired from the latter after fifteen years to concentrate on her lifelong hobbies of gardening and birdwatching.

Susan is survived by her daughter, Helen Wheelock; her son, Jamie Wheelock and his wife Brenda and children Kay and Ian; her half-sister Betty Webster and her husband Ben Bullard and children Ashley, Lucy, and Travis and their families (Susan’s other siblings, brother Charles and sister Louise pre-deceased her), and her loving husband Peter and his children Susan Sugar Halstead, Alex Sugar, Tobias Sugar and their families. We all miss her, especially her warm personality, ready smile, good humor, and willingness to join any group or activity to help others.

If you would like to make a contribution in her memory, in lieu of flowers, please donate in her name via check to Mass Audubon, 208 South Great Rd., Lincoln, MA 01773. Burial was private in Lincoln Cemetery.

Arrangements were under the care of Concord Funeral Home, which prepared this obituary. T leave a message in her online guest book, click here.