Suzanne Greenwood (Zan)

Suzanne “Zan” Greenwood passed away at home on the night of the Winter Solstice, her longtime companion by her side, after a bruising battle with breast cancer. She was 60.

Zan was born on the family farm in upstate New York, the seventh of eight children. A high school guidance counselor saw a spark in her and helped get her into college. After graduating from Paul Smith’s College of the Adirondacks, she migrated to Vermont, where she truly came of age. After working at a variety of lodges and guest houses, she joined Vermont Bicycle Tours, leading trips as far flung as Newfoundland and Napa Valley, including 7 summer seasons in New Zealand, and was always known for putting customer service first.

Looking for new horizons drew her west & north, biking from Vancouver to Fairbanks one summer, another spent working in Yakutat for the Park Service, followed by kayaking for 3 months around the southeast panhandle. Zan spent five years living in China Poot Bay while working at Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge. This became her introduction to Homer and its environs. She valued the qualities of community, the contra-dances at Ren Toi man’s shop and playing with friends in one of the early marimba bands.

Cooking at the health food store, working as a gardener, a food server, and managing a health supplement business provided her with funds for traveling. This gave Zan opportunities for many adventures including extended biking trips through France, Iceland and Ireland with retreats in Portugal and Costa Rica.

She was a devoted knitter and epicure. It gave her great joy to fashion a stylish sweater or exquisite shawl and gift it to one of her many friends. Well known for her expertise in the kitchen, feeding people was a spiritual practice, her love language. She had great hands, a flair and a style all her own, and little patience for anyone who did any thing half-heartedly.

Zan embodied a wide & deep embrace of extended family and friends.

Her previous Winter Solstice was spent in the village ofVitre, in her beloved France, with her partner, Jerry Frederick.

A future gathering in her memory will be forthcoming.