On January 5th, 2022, Susan Goldman passed away at home with her family by her side. She was born in Los Angeles, raised in Fresno and went to college in Santa Barbara.

Susan was my wife, my partner, and my very best friend. We enjoyed 26 fun years together. We met during Bike Week at a mutual friend’s house in Daytona Beach. At the time she lived in Ft. Lauderdale, and I lived in Las Vegas. Our very first date was in Portland OR where I had a business meeting. Afterwards, we spent a long weekend touring the Olympic Peninsula, visiting Victoria, BC and falling in love. Susan moved to Las Vegas, and we were married in 1995. While living there we were able to visit all the nearby National Parks and we rode our Harleys to motorcycle events in both Sturgis and Laughlin. We moved to Fernandina Beach in 1996.

Our very first real estate project was to purchase a run-down property at 218 Ash. We rebuilt the house into three commercial units and when finished, Susan opened Susan’s Slightly Off Centre Art Gallery. She featured wood, glass, clay, and wall art from artists mostly living in the mountains of North Carolina. Susan had a keen eye for art items and was an active collector. Susan met a clay artist, Debra Fritts, and attended her Structural Clay workshop in Norcross, GA. We then attended our first Kentuck Folk Art Show in Northport, AL, a show in which Debra had a booth. Debra became Susan’s clay mentor and lifelong friend. Susan was so inspired by both Debra and the show that we built a studio behind our house in which Susan could have her own kiln. Susan continued going to classes at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, John C. Campbell in Brasstown, NC and a workshop at Penland School of Crafts located in the Blue Ridge mountains of NC. The weekend classes with various other artists also continued. One of Susan’s greatest honors was to be chosen to serve a two-year term on the Florida State Council on Arts and Culture with monthly meetings in Tallahassee. Susan operated her shop for eight years until we sold the property. Then she was able to spend more time with her hands in clay creating the style of art that she loved.

While operating gallery, Susan also attended meetings of a group called Centered Ladies. At one meeting, the program was Chris Rex playing his cello and talking about how nice it would be to have a Chamber Music Festival on the Island. Susan, along with four other ladies, took on the project and produced the first festival 21 years ago. After one of the ladies left town, Susan was promoted to President of their Board of Directors; a job she held for five years. At times the Board of Directors would meet in her Gallery.

During the 2018 recession, I got out of real estate, and we bought an RV and started what became a 12 year long journey exploring our country from one end to the other. We traveled across the United States visiting small towns in America. What we found is that there is something to do or see in almost every place that we stopped. Susan’s favorite trips were driving up the east coast from Florida to Maine searching for lighthouses, forts, and museums, and driving up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to Fort Townsend and then out to Neah Bay, WA where the Pacific Ocean meets Puget Sound. Our last trip was the best, for 5 months and 12,000 miles, driving out to and spending a month touring Alaska and back home via the Marine Highway (Ferry system).

Susan was previously married to David Olsen and after he graduated college, they moved to Hawaii where David received his doctorate degree in Marine Biology. His first job was in the Caribbean where they moved and bought a 54-foot Alden sailboat on which they lived on for a few years. David found work and Susan home schooled their two children and she also found time to collect Molas from the San Blas Indians and straw baskets from various other countries that they visited. They eventually built a house on St. Thomas, USVI and lived there until David was hired to run a fishing company in Titusville, FL. David and Susan moved to Ft. Lauderdale and separated shortly afterwards.

The owner of the company also hired Susan to be his personal assistant and for the next few years. Susan traveled with her boss and his family and she was able to collect may different things from many different countries. In addition to his main business her boss also had some fun businesses. In the early 90’s, he ventured into building very expensive custom motorcycles. To get his brand name known, Susan was charged with housing, transportation and entering their motorcycles in bike shows at various cities like Sturgis and Daytona Beach. She also had to be able to ride a motorcycle and that’s how I was able to meet her in Daytona Beach.

Her brother, Michael, and her son, Thor, preceded Susan in death. She leaves behind her daughter, Vasudeva, who lives in Fernandina Beach, her granddaughter, Casey Eaves (Lea) who lives in Jacksonville and her three sisters, Patti, Fresno, CA, Ann Poor (Larry) and Kim Tienken (Bryan) both living in Beaverton, OR.

Many will miss Susan. She was liked by all, and she was loved by most that came to know her.

Instead of flowers or donations, Susan would ask for you to support our local artists and buy a piece of their art to remember her by.

There will be no funeral service. Susan didn’t like cold weather so there may be a Celebration of Life when it warms up.