Susan J. Owen ’76

Susan died Sept. 29, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. She was a health-care ethicist and an ordained minister in the United Christ of Christ.

After graduating from James Madison High School in Vienna, Va., Susan entered Princeton with the Class of 1975 but graduated with the Class of 1976. She sang in the Chapel Choir, majored in religion, graduated with high honors, and wrote her senior thesis on “Kierkegaard and Jung: Reflections on the Boundaries of Religion, Ethics, and Psychology.”

Susan continued her studies in ethics at the University of Virginia, earning a Ph.D. in religious studies. She moved to southern Connecticut, where she was ordained to the ministry by the New Haven Association of the United Church of Christ. Susan served as a parish minister at Mount Carmel Congregational Church of Hamden and at a United Church of Christ congregation in Manchester, Conn.

Susan was an adjunct assistant professor at Quinnipiac and Southern Connecticut State universities and was a lecturer in ethics at Yale Divinity School. She later worked as a health-care ethicist with the Veterans Administration National Center for Ethics in Health Care. She worked with veterans with brain injuries and was a co-developer of a pilot transitional living facility for patients recovering from traumatic brain injuries who were reintegrating into the community. Susan showed a strong sense of mission and vocation in her commitments, all while raising her daughter, Jacqueline Outka.

Susan also served as a regional board member of the Princeton Alumni Association of Eastern Connecticut.

The class officers extend deepest sympathy to her daughter, Jacqueline; sister Ann North; and nephews David and Mark North. Susan was predeceased by her former husband, Gene Outka, in 2023.