SUSAN L. RATH

Funeral services for Susan L. Rath will be at 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25, 2008, at the Wasilla Chapel of Valley Funeral Home & Crematory, 151 E. Herning. Interment will follow at Wasilla-Aurora Cemetery. There will be a memorial service in Kotzebue Aug. 29.

Rath was born Feb. 19, 1946, in Phoenix, Ariz., to Jacqueline and Robert Rath.She graduated from Arizona State University with a major in music and a minor in education. In college, she played the viola with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and the Theater-In-The Round with musicians such as Sammy Davis Jr., Lauren Bacall and Liberace. 

After college, she found the Baha’i faith and through this met and then married Terry Adams in 1974. Rath’s faith instilled a pioneer spirit and, with her husband and two young daughters, she moved to Selawik in 1977.

Rath taught elementary school for two years before moving and settling in Kotzebue. There she became the director of the child care center and for the next 12 years worked to create a bilingual head start preschool. She then took the job as the director of family resources with Maniilaq Association, retiring only two years ago. 

During all her years of service to the Nana region, her first priority was to assist in empowering her local community to achieve its goals of sustaining a strong culture, heritage and language. During her 30 years in the community she was a consistent figure on the school board, local Baha’i Assembly and many other committees. 

She joyfully served her faith by bringing words of inspiration to life, for her part, on the local Baha’i radio project that aired weekly for almost 30 years. Her life was about improving the lives of children, whether it was first-hand in the classroom or behind the scenes through social service work, writing grants and volunteer efforts.

“If my children grow up better than me, then I did my job well,” she said.

Rath is survived by her mother Jacqueline Rath; daughter Stephanie Adams; daughter and son-in-law Lisa and Richard Shield; son and daughter-in-law Timothy and Kimberly Adams; grandchildren Tory, Cayley, Deeja, Zerin and Terren; brothers Greg and Richard Rath; and sister Patricia Bellotti.

She was preceded in death by her father Robert Rath; and son Troy Adams.