Susan Jane Reed was born in 1942 in Jermyn, Pennsylvania, to Milton and Miriam Friedman. She graduated from high school in Jermyn and went on to Bennington College, earning her degree in 1964. When faced with a choice between Harvard Medical School and the Peace Corps, she chose service without hesitation — a decision that would define the rest of her life. 

In India, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, she met Fred Reed, whom she married. They made their way from Uttar Pradesh through Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where their son Benjamin was born, Chicago, and Addis Ababa before putting down roots in Missoula, Montana. Except for a stint in Indonesia and a later retirement on the Washington Coast, Missoula became her home, her community, and her calling. 

Susan threw herself into public life in Missoula. She served on the Missoula City Council and, after earning her C.P.A. from the University of Montana, was elected Missoula County Auditor — a position she held with such distinction that she became a board member and Treasurer of the National Association of Local Government Auditors. Yet when she wrote the preface to that organization's history, she opened not with professional citation but with a line from the children's book Are You My Mother? — a choice that spoke volumes about who she was. Susan gave generously of her time, tutoring children in reading and ensuring that young people at Missoula Youth Homes had gifts at Christmas. Her family — which, in her understanding, extended far beyond blood or law to include virtually anyone she sat down long enough to talk with — was the center of her life. She passed on December 12, 2025, after a brief time in hospice.

Susan Reed lived as though service were not a choice but a condition of being alive. She was a woman of extraordinary competence who kept her heart entirely unguarded, a public servant who quoted children's books, and a person whose definition of family had no edges. Missoula was lucky to have her. 

A Celebration of Life will be held April 7th at 4 pm at the Missoula Har Shalom synagogue.