Susan Finke died peacefully on February 18, 2024, three months shy of her 100th birthday, at The Highlands in Northport, Michigan. Susan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 17, 1924, to Harry J. Finke, Jr., and Georgia Strietmann Finke. She graduated from the Hillsdale School and, in 1946, from Wellesley College. She then worked for three years as the personal secretary to Dr. Gustav Eckstein at the University of Cincinnati. After leaving Dr. Eckstein’s employ, she attended Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York City, after which she moved to Washington, D.C. to take a secretarial position at the Central Intelligence Agency. She was promoted to intelligence analyst and remained in that job the rest of her career.

After retiring from the CIA in 1982, Susan stayed in Washington, taking classes in a variety of subjects and, for the next 26 years, volunteering as a reader for the visually impaired, an undertaking she enjoyed and found especially gratifying. In 2011, she moved to Traverse City, Michigan, near her cottage in Leland where she had spent summers with her family. She moved in 2019 to Northport, where she was living at the time of her death.

Throughout her long life, Susan was an avid and wide-ranging reader, and after moving to Leland, she volunteered at the Leland Township Library, just one of the organizations to which she gave generous support. She loved to knit, swim, and play golf, and she was an excellent cook. She traveled extensively for both work and pleasure, took full advantage of the cultural offerings everywhere she lived, and retained to the end of her life an affectionate interest in the lives and well-being of her family and many friends. Susan is survived by her nieces Georgia (Jim) Rivers and Anne Finke (Phil Atwood) Adams; her nephews Richard F. Peck, Jr., L. Harlan Peck, and Harry J. (Wendy) Finke IV; her grandnieces Carol (Rashid) Lattouf and Sarah (Wes) Smith; her grandnephews Chase, Grant, and Tyler (Alexis) Adams; her great-grandnieces Georgia Lattouf and Maddie Smith; and her greatgrandnephews Bodin Smith and James Lattouf, all of whom will miss her dearly. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Carol Finke (Glen) Maxon, and her brother Harry J. ( Jean) Finke III.

Memorial gifts may be made to the Leland Township Library, 203 E. Cedar Street, Leland, Michigan 49654.

Please share condolences with the family at www.martinson.info Arrangements are with the Martinson Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Leelanau.