Obituary of Susan M. Grotevant

Susan Marie Miskell Grotevant of Belchertown, Massachusetts, passed away on July 3, 2023  after a lengthy neurological illness.  

Susan Marie Miskell was born on June 11, 1948 in Denton, Texas, where her mother Helen and father Francis were attending college at North Texas State Teachers College. They later moved to Austin, where she attended Pease Elementary and Austin High School. Younger brother Kevin joined the family six years later. Her father Francis worked in various roles in Texas state government until his untimely death in 1972, and her mother Helen was a public school teacher, librarian, and published poet. 

After graduating from Austin High in 1966, Susan enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. She started out as an art major, but eventually earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and Political Science. While she left visual art as an academic pursuit, she always took an artistic approach to life, and her paintings and prints still hang in her home and those of her children.   

During freshman year at UT, Susan started dating a young psychology student from Dallas named Harold Grotevant who would become the love of her life. Susan and Hal met at the Newman Club of the Catholic Student Center, and married at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Austin on May 31, 1970, the day after they graduated. After honeymooning in New Orleans, Susan and Hal lived briefly in Dallas until he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to a duty station in Vallejo, California, where she was able to join him living in off-base housing. 

During Hal’s naval service, Susan gave birth to their first son, Paul, in August 1972. In 1973, they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Hal began working toward his PhD. Susan spent several years taking care of Paul full-time, but later would often tell the story of hearing her two year old son respond to the question “What does your mother do?” with the answer “She does needlepoint.” While factually true, this wasn’t how Susan saw her identity, and she subsequently enrolled at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, eventually earning an MBA with a concentration in Finance.  

In 1977, the family moved back to Austin, where Hal started his first teaching job at UT Austin and Susan began working as a Program Analyst at the Texas Legislative Budget Board, following her father’s footsteps in Texas state government. Over the next 13 years, she progressed through a series of increasingly senior positions at the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission and Texas Employees Retirement System, culminating in her role as the Deputy Insurance Commissioner of the Texas State Board of Insurance. There she managed many of the agency’s support functions including accounting, tax collection, budget and planning. She also served as the agency liaison to the State Legislature, Comptroller’s Office, and the legislative and executive budget offices. 

Soon after the move to Austin, Susan and Hal joined the Episcopal Church, and spent many years together singing in the choir of St. Luke’s on the Lake. She also continued to feed the artistic side of her soul during these years, learning the craft of stained glass and finding projects where she could contribute through her drawing skills.  

In 1985, Susan and Hal welcomed their second child, Mark. In 1990, Hal accepted a teaching position back at the University of Minnesota. After Paul graduated from high school, Susan, Hal, and Mark relocated to the northern end of I-35, while Paul remained in Austin to start his college education at UT Austin. While Susan would never live in Austin again, it always held a special place in her heart. She loved coming back to visit her beloved mother, to eat at her many favorite restaurants, and eventually to dote on her two young grandchildren. It was home. 

In Minnesota, Susan started a new phase of her career, focusing on higher education budget and finance. She held several positions at the University of Minnesota over the next 16 years, including Director of Finance and Administration for the College of Liberal Arts; Associate Provost for Budget and Planning for Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; and Director of Information Management Systems for the Office of Information Technology. During this time, Susan developed a passionate interest in using the new technology of the world wide web to build data warehouses and reporting tools that would support financial and budget decision makers. In her Associate Provost role, Susan led the development of Clarity, an innovative intranet decision support application for university administrators. Clarity won widespread notice both within the University of Minnesota as well as across higher education, and Susan delivered many conference presentations sharing what her team had learned and built. She also received professional recognitions such as the Computer World Best Practices in Business Intelligence Award, and nomination for the EDUCAUSE Information Technology Solutions Award. Throughout the rest of her life, the work done to build Clarity remained one of her proudest achievements. She especially prized her role as mentor to the staff she hired and supervised. 

After leaving Minnesota in 2006, Susan served as Associate Vice President at New Mexico State University and later as Associate Dean for Administration and Finance at Northeastern University in Boston, before retiring in 2011 to a new home with Hal in Belchertown, Massachusetts, where he taught at the University of Massachusetts until 2023. During retirement, Susan spent time indulging her love for animals by volunteering with the Dakin Humane Society and by being Mom to her beloved Golden Retriever, Grace, and Tonkinese cats: Pookie, Shadow, MacKenzie, and her all-time favorite, Chloe. She also became a passionate supporter of progressive political causes and candidates. She was always an avid reader of fiction and non-fiction and subscribed to numerous newspapers and websites. She could have carried her own weight in discussions with any of the TV pundits. 

Susan loved to travel, and had looked forward to doing more of it in her retirement. In 2018, Susan and Hal were able to take their grandchildren on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, which had been one of their favorite vacation destinations. In her later years, she enjoyed taking cruises – especially if the ship had a good spa on board. In 2020, they took a cruise around South America, not knowing that it would be their last trip together. 

A few years into retirement, Susan started experiencing significant health problems which eventually led to reduced mobility and loss of independence. Susan loved shopping and the independence of being able to hop in the car and drive anywhere she would like. She had driven since the age of 14, and was especially distraught over the loss of being able to drive.  But she brought all of the determination and grit which she had developed through her professional career to the long battle to regain her health and search for answers to the mysteries of her illness. Every setback would be met with a renewed determination to recover, and throughout many difficult experiences with the health care system, she always demanded respect and dignity.  

Susan is survived by her husband Harold (Hal) Grotevant; son Paul Grotevant and his wife Carolyn Schwarz (of Austin, TX); son Mark Grotevant and his partner Lisa Rosett (of Vancouver, WA); grandchildren Reid and Meredith Grotevant; and her brother Kevin Miskell and his wife Janette (of Austin). She was predeceased by her parents Francis Anthony Miskell and Helen Irene Burton Miskell. Susan was especially proud of her Irish heritage and visited relatives in County Clare several times. She loved all things Irish - especially music, dance, and crafts. Soft Irish music was playing as she passed. 

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 at Beers and Story Funeral Home, 10 Maple Street, Belchertown, MA. Friends and family are welcome to begin gathering at 2:00 pm, and the service will begin at 3:00 pm. Burial services will be held in her beloved Austin at a future date. Her obituary and a slide presentation of photos will be permanently archived at www.beersandstory.com 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to one of the organizations which Susan passionately supported: Planned Parenthood, the Dakin Humane Society, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas; or to Cooley Dickinson Hospice program, which provided outstanding support to her and her family during her last weeks.