Susan K.  Pitkin

Susan Kobbe Pitkin, a resident of Westport and Weston for 58 years died Friday, August 3, at home in Ithaca, New York. She was 97. Ms. Pitkin was the wife of the late Walter Boughton Pitkin.

She was born in New Rochelle, New York, on August 16, 1914, daughter of the late Herman and Helene Metcalfe Kobbe. The arts were an important part of life in her family which included two internationally renowned musicians, her aunt and namesake, Susan Metcalfe Casals, a soprano, and cellist Pablo Casals. Ms. Pitkin was educated at home by her parents in New York until the age of 16 when she enrolled in the Odenwaldschule in Heppenheim, Germany, for two years. She later attended Barnard College and the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy, from which she graduated in 1942.

She and Mr. Pitkin were married in 1940. They lived in Manhattan until 1949, when they moved to Westport, and in 1961 they moved to Weston. She was active in civic affairs in both towns. In 1962 she was employed at the Westport Public Library. At the library’s reader’s service desk for two decades, before the Internet and Google, she applied her broad knowledge and keen memory for names and facts to help patrons find the right book, print, or piece of information. She retired from the library in 1982. Following her husband’s death in 2007 Ms. Pitkin moved to Old Hundred, a residence in Ithaca, New York, where she made many new friends and enjoyed the change of scenery.

Ms. Pitkin is survived by two sons, John R. Pitkin of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Stephen Pitkin of Albany, Vermont; six grandchildren, Felix and Benjamin Teitelbaum, and Mirja, Kaari, Margaret and Roberta Pitkin; and seven great-grandchildren, Louis, Walter and Sara Teitelbaum and Forest, Walker, Oscar, and Beatrix Pitkin. Ms. Pitkin was predeceased by her husband, daughter Ann Pitkin, of Ithaca, New York, sister Olga Pitkin and two brothers, Louis and John Kobbe.

Burial will be private.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Weston Public Library, 56 Norfield Road, Weston, CT 06883 or The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203.