Susan Elaine Ryder
October 10, 1954 — August 10, 2024
Susan Elaine (Burak) Ryder, 69, of Boise, died peacefully Saturday night at home, ending her courageous thirty-seven-year battle with cancer .Sue was born on October 10, 1954, in Boise, Idaho, to Mary (Pierce) and Walter Burak. A graduate of Boise High School 1972, she attended college at the University of Idaho, Moscow and Boise State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts: Early Education in 1980.
A lover of animals with a keen "whisperer's" sense of them, she originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but was told women could not pursue that field. Since she was also a natural inspiring teacher, she returned to her studies with a Master of Arts, Special Education, in 1986 from Boise State University. Sue worked at Mountain Bell Telephone Company as an operator before she began her career teaching in Meridian as a roving Special Ed teacher. She soon transferred to the Boise School District, teaching second, fourth, and fifth grade before working as both Vice Principal and Principal at elementary schools across the Treasure Valley, including Garfield, Cynthia Mann, and Lowell. Sue received her "Master Gardner" certification, both out of a love for gardening and a commitment to be as knowledgeable as she could in every endeavor. She found joy each spring as her front yard filled with poppies and iris, and she felt tremendous pride each fall as she harvested her large vegetable garden. Never one to have idle hands, she was an avid cross-stitcher, embroiderer, and quilter. Sue was a member of the Boise Chapter of the Embroiderers Guild of America in the late '70s and a charter member of the Boise Basin Quilters Guild. Sue created hundreds of beautiful quilts both by hand and machine, winning several awards over the years. From 1994 to 2009, she ran 2 Sisters Quilting Shoppe with her younger sister, Trinity. In 2011 Sue embarked on a quilting journey of her own, Crystal Vision Quilting. Traveling to quilt shows with her glamping trailer "Trixie" behind her, taking her friends and family as helpers. Sue was happiest outdoors with a fishing pole in hand. She loved both fly fishing and reel casting, and this beloved pastime took her to the rivers of Alaska and the lakes of Idaho. She was a master at cooking a four-course meal with a cast iron Dutch oven in the backwoods. She loved picking huckleberries, canning pickles and jellies, and always trying new recipes. She was a voracious reader and could finish a good book in an afternoon—always with a beloved dog or cat nearby. Her hobbies were many and she strived for excellence in all.
She was married to John C. Ryder from 1978 to 1999. The couple had two children, Jacob Charles Ryder and Kelli Anne (Ryder) Lamb. Sue was filled with tremendous pride at the accomplishments of her children, and they both hope to carry her legacy forward with both an entrepreneurial spirit and love of the great outdoors. Her final years were spent with her beloved partner, Dr. Jill Gill, a professor of U.S. History at Boise State University. Sue's happiest moments were teaching Jill to fish on the banks of Horsethief Reservoir, camping, dancing, cooking healthy meals together, conversing with curiosity about every subject and turn that life brought, and crafting alongside Jill's mother, Evie. Sue lived many lives as magically diverse, beautiful, and expansive as the Idaho landscape that she dearly loved. No single one captured the breadth of her being. Together they quilted the full textures of her.
Sue was preceded in death by her parents, Mary in 1973 and Walt in 1994; her siblings, Lynda Knight, 1996 and Steven Burak, 2023.
Surviving are her partner Jill Gill, Boise; her children, Jake Ryder and his wife, Kacie Dalziel, Portland, OR; and Kelli and husband, Timothy Lamb, Los Angeles, CA; sister, Trinity Burak and her husband Yuri Itzhakov, Meridian; sister-in-law, Nadine Burak, Emmett; ex-husband John C. and wife Debi Ryder, Emmett; and sweet service dog Aspen, and twin kitties Violet and Iris. Several nieces and nephews also survive her, and the list of friends left to mourn her passing is too many to list.
A celebration of Sue's life will be held on what would have been her 70th birthday, October 10, with details to come.