Obituary of Susan Lee Cumberledge

"Belchertown, Susan Lee Cumberledge, 52, associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, died July 28, 2008 in Worcester, following a long battle with cancer. Born in El Paso, TX, on the 5th day of March, 1956, she was the daughter of the late Lessie Lee (Taylor) who died in 1990 and the then Captain Theodore A. Cumberledge, presently of Shutesbury. She lived there for two years, and in the fall of 1958, the family relocated to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany and remained there until June 1961 when they relocated to March Air Force Base in Riverside, CA. The family later settled in Upland, CA where Susan completed her schooling. Following high school, Susan entered California State College and the university system. She earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1986 with John Carbon at the University of CA Santa Barbara and conducted postdoctoral fellowships at both the University of Utah Medical School and Stanford Medical School. Recruited to the Biochemistry and Molecular biology faculty in 1993, she researched cell-cell signaling in development using the fruit fly Drosophilia melanogasster as a model organism. Most recently, she focused on assembly of the neuromuscular junction, an area relevant to the pathologies of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. In 2004-05 she was awarded a Defense Policy Fellowship from the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. During her fellowship she worked with the Department of Defense, Department of State, and the National Academy of Sciences to develop a digital science and engineering library for public universities in Iraq. She continued as an advisor to the project through 2007. In May, she was presented a faculty award at the campus' 28th research recognition dinner for her 2007 patent, "Secreted Frizzled Related Protein, SFRP, Fragments and Methods of Use Thereof." Besides her father, two adopted sons, Anthony of Portland, Oregon, and Phillip of Shutesbury, survive her. Besides her mother, a brother Theodore, Jr. preceded her in death in 1990. For those wishing, please make donations in her memory to either The City of Hope (http://www.cityofhope.org/giving/Pages/default.aspx) or the American Cancer Society (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/don/don_0.asp?from=hpbox). All services have been planned privately and Beers & Story Belchertown Funeral has been entrusted with her arrangements. "