Susan Cotter Johnson passed away peacefully on Saturday, January 10 at her home in Piedmont, CA. She was 86 years old.
In her final weeks, she was visited regularly by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, each arrival to her bedside bringing a smile to her face.
Her passing closely followed the death of her only sibling, her beloved younger brother Ralph E. Cotter III (Terry), who was 84.
Susan was born on August 1, 1939, as the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Cotter, Jr., of Oakland, CA, and granddaughter of Major and Mrs. Winfield S. Overton of Piedmont, CA and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Cotter, Sr., of Oakland, CA.
Susan’s lifelong passion for travel, history, fitness, and adventure led her to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with her brother and others when she was 62 years old, and later to visit Antarctica, in part, to retrace the exploits of the 1914-1917 Shackleton expedition.
A fourth-generation resident of the East Bay, Susan attended Montclair Grammar School, then Piedmont Jr. and Sr. High School. Captivated by what she termed “the thrill of learning,” she graduated from Stanford University in 1961 as a history major elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She married Charles R. Schwab, a former Santa Barbaran, in her sophomore year while he was in Stanford’s graduate school of business. They later moved to Marin County where Susan became involved in Republican politics, at times carrying her infant son Sandy on her back while she went canvassing door to door. Having grown up in a conservative family in which politics was a usual dinner time topic of conversation, Susan first engaged in politics in high school working to get out of the vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower.
She was appointed to two advisory boards by Gov. Ronald Reagan, first to a state commission on educational reform, and then to California’s seven-member State Social Welfare Board. “I guess they needed a fresh face and one from the Bay Area,” Susan, then 32, told the Oakland Tribune in 1971 in a story about her appointment to the welfare board. The writer added, “Susan’s face, with its dusting of freckles, light green eyes and tawny hair, is certainly a fresh one.” She would serve twice as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.
She was an ardent skier, and longtime tennis player, and golfer who played regularly as a member of the Claremont Country Club. She delighted in gardening, reading, playing bridge with friends, and spending time with her grandchildren, who called her “Mama.”
She is survived by her daughters, Carrie Schwab Pomerantz of San Francisco, CA, and Virginia Schwab Davis of Oakland, CA, and her son, Charles Robert Schwab Jr. (Sandy) of Naples, FL; in addition to 10 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
To honor Susan’s legacy, the family kindly requests donations be made to Muttville, the country’s first cage-free shelter and California’s first senior dog rescue. Address: 750 Florida Street, San Francisco, CA 94110; Phone: 415-272-4172.