Susan Marie (Stormer) Pezzi MD

Susan graduated near the top of her high school class in 1948. Despite her parents’ clear intellect, neither of them graduated high school due to losing their fathers, respectively, at young ages. Nonetheless, Mary urged Susan to use higher education as a path to a better life — an opportunity she did not have herself. Susan (and her two brothers) attended Pennsylvania State University, where she graduated in 1952, likely as the first woman in her lineage to graduate from college.

Susan continued her education at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM), as a recipient of a Pennsylvania senatorial scholarship. She was the first woman from Altoona to attend medical school and one of only six women in her class — all years before some Philadelphia medical schools accepted women students at all. She graduated from TUSM with honors (AOA) in 1956, then completed an internship in internal medicine at the Abington Memorial Hospital in 1957. She then continued her graduate medical education to become the first woman to train as a resident in internal medicine at Abington from 1957-59.

It was during her training at Abington — reportedly while helping remove the appendix of a child — that Susan met a young surgical resident, Pio Julius Pezzi from Rome, Italy. They wed at a small church in Abington on Jan. 15, 1958, beginning 57 years of happy marriage together.

Susan and Pio lived their first year together in New Hope, Pa., a town they loved, until their home on Mechanic Street burned to the ground. They fatefully moved to a small apartment on York Road in Abington near the hospital where they met their neighbors, Cathy and Bob Berg, who would become their lifelong best friends and travel companions. Many years later, the Pezzi’s and Berg’s would build adjacent homes in Lambertville, N.J. overlooking the bridge and New Hope across the Delaware River.

In addition to full-time motherhood, Susan worked into her 70s as a physician in various family medical offices, public schools in Upper Moreland, for Arcadia University, out of an office in the family home in Huntingdon Valley, at multiple nursing homes, and as a volunteer for several non-profit organizations — notably Aldersgate in Willow Grove, Pa. At Aldersgate, she assisted countless teenage, single, pregnant women in the 1970s in obtaining pregnancy tests (which were not available except from doctor’s offices or clinics in the U.S. prior to 1978), and with counseling.

Pio and Susan traveled the world together — not just across the U.S. (often by car) and Canada, but also to Mexico, South America, Europe, Africa, Russia, China and Hong Kong. They often traveled with the Bergs, as well as with the Rillings and Fosters. Their Christmas Eve party became a legendary reunion of these families and other friends for many decades, always featuring Swiss fondue with the origins of this tradition dating back to the apartment on York Road.

Susan is survived by her four children, who will always remember her as the best mother ever: Christopher Mario Pezzi (Sharon Kramer), James Stormer Pezzi (Julia Higgins), Thomas Andrew Pezzi (Michele Fidure), and Kimberly Anne Pezzi-Burns (Les Burns). She was also a wonderful and loving grandmother to 11: Stephen (Abigail Dosoretz), Todd (Ashley Turkeltaub), Alexandra (Daniel Rodkey), Trent (Zoe Hannah), Kyle, Jonathan, Madison, Daniel, Karina, Nikita and John Pio; and great-grandmother to six: Samantha, Andy, Sloane, Nora, Harper and Carson.

Susan Pezzi will be remembered as a pioneering woman in medicine and a strong, independent woman at a time when that was not as common as it is today. Despite her outsized impact on her community, her family will remember her even more for her unconditional love. She was a role model for so many, leading her life by example, as well as a voice of reason and compassion for her patients, husband, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She will be deeply missed.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 15, 2024, at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 344 Baynton Ave., Altoona, with Father Alan Thomas, celebrant. Committal will be held at Calvary Cemetery.

Arrangements are by The Stevens Mortuary Inc., 1421 Eighth Ave., Altoona.

Condolences may be made at www.stevensfamilyfuneralhomes.com or Stevens Family Funeral Homes Facebook page.