Obituary: Susan Gay Dahoda

Susan Gay Dahoda, the beloved only daughter of Peter and Dorothy Jamison Dahoda and the middle child of three, was born on Feb. 16, 1954, in Middletown, New York. She passed away peacefully on Aug. 10, 2026, in Lee's Summit, Missouri, surrounded by love and in the care of her family and community.

In 1955, Susan's family moved to Oxford, Ohio, where her father joined the Miami University Art Department to establish and teach its ceramics program. Susan's childhood in Oxford was shaped by a close-knit neighborhood of university families, many of them connected to the art department. She loved the Girl Scouts, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and the enduring friendships she formed at McGuffey Laboratory School, where she attended first through eighth grade. Because each grade had only about 30 students, the friendships formed during those years often lasted a lifetime.

At Talawanda High School, Susan participated in choir, basketball, volleyball and field hockey. She was a strong advocate for girls' athletics, helping to secure greater school and financial support for female sports programs. She also helped organize and participated in the school's first girls' "Powderpuff" flag football game. Her love of music and the arts continued throughout her life. She studied piano for many years and continued to play for her entire life.

Susan's Christian faith was an important part of her early life. Summers at Proctor Farm, a camp operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Ohio, strengthened her faith and introduced her to a broader community within the church. Even as a teenager, she participated in diocesan committees during a period of significant change and discussion within the Episcopal Church.

After graduating from Talawanda in 1972, Susan left Oxford to attend the University of Cincinnati. There, she discovered another of her passions: road bicycling. She became deeply involved in the cycling community and apprenticed as a bicycle mechanic at a prominent shop known among road-racing enthusiasts. She developed an impressive level of technical expertise, although the male-dominated cycling world of the time was not ready to accept a woman working as a mechanic on high-end racing bicycles.

Never one to let convention determine the course of her life, Susan headed to northern California with a friend. There, she worked in the fabric industry and explored the coastal and mountain regions on long bicycle rides. Her love of adventure and the outdoors continued to grow.

Susan later returned to the Cincinnati area to complete her college education through Goddard College. She then began teaching in a Goddard program serving children with dyslexia and other learning challenges. Through that work, she came to understand that she herself had dyslexia and began to recognize the challenges she had faced throughout her own education. True to her determined nature, she tackled the challenge in an unconventional way, teaching herself to write exclusively with her non-preferred left hand for approximately five years to strengthen the connections between the two sides of her brain.

Susan married while living in Cincinnati and continued teaching and tutoring, forming deep and lasting relationships with many of the children and families she served. When her husband's career took them to Waukesha, Wisconsin, Susan's longstanding connection to the church led her to pursue a seminary education and become a certified chaplain.

Eventually, however, Susan knew where she wanted to be back in the Kansas City area permanently to be among the community she had come to love at Unity Church. Susan was facing her greatest challenge, a breast cancer diagnosis, and needed the support, friendship and spiritual community that meant so much to her.

She moved to Lee's Summit and found an apartment across from the Unity Church complex. She received an extraordinary outpouring of care, love and support from her friends and church community. Even as her illness progressed to Stage IV cancer, Susan continued to share her warmth, humor, curiosity and remarkable zest for life with those around her.

In late April, Susan chose to begin hospice care. She faced the end of her life with the same courage, independence and acceptance that had guided her through so many chapters of her life. During her final months, she shared long conversations with her older brother, David, and welcomed regular visits from her younger brother, Jeff. Even as her illness became increasingly difficult, she continued to find moments of joy and connection.

Susan was admitted to the hospice wing of University Health in early June. Her younger brother, Jeff, was at her side when she passed peacefully on Aug. 10, 2026.

Susan was preceded in death by her parents, Peter and Dorothy Dahoda. 

She is survived by her older brother, David, and younger brother, Jeff.

A celebration of life memorial service is scheduled at the Unity Complex Atrium Chapel on Sunday, Sept. 13, at 1:30pm EST, 200 Unity Circle North, Unity Village, Missouri. The service will be presented live from the chapel on YouTube (https://youtube.com/live/eTqqon67IHs).

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Audubon Society (Protect Birds Now National Audubon Society).

Susan lived a life defined by curiosity, courage, faith, adventure and an enduring willingness to follow her own path. She touched many lives through her teaching, ministry, friendship, and simple acts of care. She will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered by her family, friends and the many people whose lives she touched.

This obituary was originally published by the Cremation Society of Kansas & Missouri - Prairie Village and has been edited for length.