Susan Messick Obituary

Susan (Suzi) Peel Messick of Cordova, Maryland, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, surrounded by her loved ones. She was a loving wife, mother, and friend and will be deeply missed. Suzi was best known for her boundless loving kindness and compassion for others.

Suzi was born on September 17, 1955, in Greenwich Village, New York, to Francis (Frank) Peel, an attorney, and Jane Zielonko Peel, a Slavic scholar, adviser to Radio Free Europe, and translator from Polish to English of "The Captive Mind," a book by Nobel-winning author Czeslaw Milosz. In 1957, Suzi and her parents moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where her father became Chief of Planning for the United Nations International Labor Organization.

In Geneva, Suzi was an avid scholar of languages, becoming bilingual in French and English, adept in Polish and Italian, and with some facility in German and Russian. Suzi graduated from high school at Ecole internationale de Geneve (the International School of Geneva) and university at University of Geneva. Thereafter she taught history, geography and English at Geneva public schools and the International School of Geneva.

With the advent of the HIV-AIDS pandemic in the 1980's, Suzi actively sought to destigmatize the disease and to inform students and young adults of its consequences. She became certified in Community Health at Geneva University and served as Program Director for the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and the 13th International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Nairobi, Kenya.

In 1999, after 42 years in Geneva, Switzerland, Suzi moved, along with her daughters, to Cambridge, MA, to serve on the board of directors and as CEO of various foundations advocating public health and the protection of children, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, orphaned by AIDS. In Washington, DC, she served as Program Director for the World Health International East Africa Program for HIV/AIDS. She also coordinated efforts with US AID, and built partnerships with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Welcome Trust, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In the course of her career, Suzi traveled to Africa more than 40 times.

In 2012, Suzi moved to the Easton, MD area to manage the Eastern Shore Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Outreach Program to educate and conduct outreach on enrolling in those health care programs. Locally, Suzi served as a Stephen Minister at Christ Episcopal Church, Easton, Maryland, and volunteered at Talbot Hospice Foundation, seeking to reframe hospice care as hope for comfort, acceptance, compassion and ease as life ends.

In June 2021, Suzi was ordained an InterFaith/InterSpiritual Minister, seeking to aid those faced with end-of-life challenges.

Suzi was a poetry editor, writing coach and author, having written a memoir of the greatest influence in her young life- her grandfather, Maurice Perlzweig, a British Reform Rabbi and a founding member of, and Director of International Affairs for, the World Jewish Congress where he advocated social justice and human rights in the wake of World War II.

After decades of caring for, and serving the needs of, others, Suzi received the support and loving care of her husband, family, and friends in conjunction with the Talbot Home Hospice Care Program.

Suzi is survived by her husband, Robert Messick, of Cordova, MD, and her daughters, Julia Farah Warczyk of Mexico, and Ania Warczyk Payne, of Nashville, TN.

A Celebration of Suzi's Life will be held on April 26 at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Talbot Hospice Foundation, Easton, MD.