Sue Monahan

Suzanne Phillips was born on July 16, 1928 in Rochester, New York. She was a scrappy tomboyish kinda girl. Her blue eyes twinkled when she talked about some of her childhood adventures. At age 18 she bought a one-way bus ticket to the “wild, wild West”, living in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon for all the rest of her life. 

Her uncle managed the YMCA in Walla Walla, so she worked there where she met and married Russell Monahan. They spent the next several years raising their family of three daughters: Christie, Lynne and Mollie. In 1976 Sue and Russell divorced. 

Living in Beaverton, Sue got a BA and a Masters degree in Counseling at Portland State University. She met and married Galen Trostle in 1979 and their families quickly became blended. They had a home on the beautiful Oregon coast. While living in Lincoln City, Sue was the director of the Women’s Domestic Violence Shelter Program. Sue loved the ocean and their life there. Galen died in 1999. 

After Galen’s death, Sue worked at Lutheran Family Services in Beaverton. She then moved to Eugene in 1998 to be closer to her grown daughters and the extended family. She also worked with Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS), and continued volunteering there after she retired. 

She became acquainted with a few Friends and started coming to Eugene Friends Meeting. She was very attracted to social concerns and loved that nobody was going to tell her what she had to believe. She had her own ideas about that. She served on many committees and frequently put her writing skills to work, especially writing the State of Society Reports. She was also involved in helping to start the Friends Care Committee in our Meeting. 

As her health declined, she set an example of how to simplify and surrender. She lived the last decade of her life at Willamette Oaks Retirement Center. There she continued finding ways to develop her creativity with reading, writing, photography, knitting and crafts. She was well loved in that community. 

Sue Monahan joined the Religious Society of Friends in March 1998 in Eugene Friends Meeting. She died on March 15, 2019. She is cherished and will be missed.