Susanna P. Buie

SUSANNA PEIRCE BUIE Susanna Peirce Buie, 86, of Mars Hill died Wednesday, January 17, 2001, at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Susanna Peirce was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on July 24, 1914. Her father, Col. Albert E. Peirce, Jr., was a public utilities executive in Chicago and Baltimore and headed the Key West Gas Company from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. She grew up in Winnetka, IL and Canterbury Farms, Warrenton, VA. She graduated from Kemper Hall , a convent boarding school of the Sisters of St. Mary (Episcopal) in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where she was president of her senior class and captain of the basketball team. She received her B.A. in Art History from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY and her M.A. in Education from the University of South Carolina. She also did doctoral work at Florida State University in early childhood education. During the 1940’s and 1950’s she participated in the Vassar Summer Institute, a pioneering program in family dynamics. In 1938 she married Bennett Frank Buie in Naples, Italy. Their early married life was spent in British India where their first child was born. Returning to the United States at the outbreak of World War II, they lived in Loredo, Texas until Dr. Buie was called up for military service, during which time Mrs. Buie lived in Warrenton, VA and Poughkeepsie, NY. After World War II, they returned to Dr. Buie’s alma mater, the University of South Carolina, where he taught geology. During this period, she designed several homes in what became her characteristic building style, modified American International. She was also a pioneer in early childhood education, developing the Sandy Knoll Preschool, the first parents’ cooperative effort in South Carolina history and organizing the first statewide preschool association. In 1956 the family moved to Tallahassee when Dr. Buie became Professor of Geology at Florida State University where he served until his retirement in 1981. As Dr. Buie went on to play a prominent role in geological exploration throughout the world, she developed the family property, Woodlea, with landscaping, buildings and innovative tenent/property management relations. Together they organized and led a geological tour of major oil producing nations for the “People-to-People” program of the US Department of State. Dr. Buie died in 1992. Mrs. Buie is survived by her daughters, Susanna B. Matthews of Tallahassee, Julia B. Steinitz of Vienna, Austria, Carolyn B. Erdener of Milledgeville, GA and Margaret B. Keppie of Wolfville, Nova Scotia and Mexico City; one brother, Burke Peirce of Mauricetown, NJ; seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Family interment will be Monday, January 22, 2001, at Oak Grove Church near Cheraw, SC. Memorial contributions may be made to Childreach, 155 Plan Way, Warwick, RI 02886-1099, www.childreach.org. Groce Funeral Home on Patton Avenue is assisting the family-END-