Susan Bouma Deerin

Susan Bouma Deerin passed away surrounded by family on July 3, 2025.

Born September 30, 1943, in Maywood, Illinois, to Evelyn and Robert Bouma, Susie grew up in Bethesda, MD. She attended Little Flower School and Walter Johnson Senior High School, where she was a champion diver. In 1961, Susie took the train to Indiana, spending four very fun but very cold years at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame. After the obligatory post-college European extravaganza, she began her lifelong education career as a history teacher at Gordon Junior High School in Georgetown, earning a Master of Education (Counseling) at George Washington University at the same time. Susie later went on to earn a second graduate degree, a Master’s of Liberal Studies in Foreign Affairs from Georgetown University, graduating with distinction.

Susie met the love of her life, Dick Deerin, in the summer of 1966 at her college roommate’s wedding. They married in December of 1967, at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. Their first son, J.B., arrived the next November. He was joined two years later by a second son, Sloan, born in Germany where Dick was stationed with the Army.

When the family returned stateside, they purchased a house on Runnymede Place in Chevy Chase, DC. This magical city block was where their third son, Andrew, was born, and also where Susie embraced her role as a “boy Mom.”  “Come home when the streetlights turn on,” was her mantra. On snowy days, Susie would gamely drive through Rock Creek Park, scouting for frozen ponds where her boys and their friends could play hockey.  An adorable, petite blonde whom her boys christened “Big Sue,” she shepherded them through Blessed Sacrament and Gonzaga, cultivating the perfect mix of tough love (when they weren’t living up to their potential) and exceptional kindness (when one got in trouble or cut from a team). Summers in Oxford, Maryland, were one of the greatest gifts she gave her boys. She delighted in their time there, joining the boys in waterskiing, sailing, and sunset swimming in the Tred Avon River. The family moved to Chevy Chase Village in 1981.

While raising her three boys, Susie also worked for D.C. Public Schools. She founded an innovative pilot project that provided cultural exchange for elementary school students, recruiting embassies to “adopt” a 6th-grade classroom.  Intent on expanding the program, Susie partnered with the Women’s Committee of the Washington Performing Arts, and the pilot program of 14 schools expanded to 50, becoming the Embassy Adoption Program, which still flourishes today.  When she retired in 2005, over 35,000 D.C. schoolchildren had participated in the program. Forever grateful to the Women’s Committee for supporting the Embassy Adoption Program, Susie served as the Women’s Committee president, chairing the annual gala.

On the Embassy Adoption Program’s 30th anniversary, Mayor Anthony Williams issued a proclamation in honor of Susie: “As Founder and Coordinator of the Embassy Adoption Program, you have made an immeasurable contribution to the fabric of this city. Through your vision, dedication, and commitment, you have helped to build bridges of understanding between our diplomatic and local communities. You have helped the youth of this city enhance their quality of life and their understanding of the rich diversity of our world community.” Her retirement reception was held at the U.S. Department of State, where she was greeted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and several ambassadors from the countries that had supported the Embassy Adoption Program over the years.

Susie also loved an adventure. When she turned 50, she set off for the Colorado Outward Bound Mountaineering School in the Rockies and roughed it in the wilderness, melting snow for drinking water and sleeping in snow caves. She took a troupe of DC school children to Turkey for an international children’s festival, spent two weeks in Russia on a teacher exchange program, and visited Senegal with a group of DC teachers.   A few years later, she traveled to Japan on a Fulbright grant. Vivacious, kind, and relentlessly positive, Susie drew people in, making friends wherever she traveled and wherever she lived.

During their 57-year marriage, Susie and Dick exemplified unconditional love, teaching their boys what a marriage of equals and mutual respect looks like, through their actions and words. They shared a love story for the ages, supporting each other through both the good times and the bad.

In 2006, Susie and Dick moved to their home in Oxford, MD. While enjoying the slower pace of life on the Eastern Shore, Susie served as a Character Counts coach in the local schools, took up painting, capturing the countryside and her grandchildren on canvas, and perfected her “top secret” chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Susie cherished her nine spectacular grandchildren: Lilly, Lucy, Devon, Tess, Jack, James, Kingsley, Grace, and Ford, and was a wonderful mother-in-law to Meghan (JB), Missy (Sloan), and Christine (Andrew). She was pre-deceased by her brother, Rick Bouma.

A celebration of life to be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Brain Tumor Society at www.braintumor.org.

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