OBITUARIES

Behind-the-scenes do-gooder Sue Prince, 96

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Sue Prince passed away on May 26, 2017.

She was a very special person who touched the lives of many in her 96 years on Earth. She grew up in Brooklyn and married Joseph Prince during World War II.

While Joe worked as a quality control inspector for the U.S. Air Force in Rochester, she attended the University of Rochester and had their first child, Carole Karp. 

After the war, the family returned to Brooklyn and she began a succession of jobs in which she set the tone for her life: Helping those around her, often behind the scenes, influencing thought in her community, serving as the right hand to several high-powered bosses.

She was executive secretary of the East Flatbush Jewish Community Center, administrative executive secretary for the president of NYU Medical Center, executive assistant for the first deputy commission of the Department of Hospitals, the medical board administrator of Downstate University Hospital, and right hand executive secretary of Rabbi Avi Weiss at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale through 1992.

Along the way she had two more children, Gary Prince and Penny Prince, the latter a Riverdale musicians and professor at Lehman College. She edited papers and books for authors, wrote poems and lyrics, and set the model for the six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren to become strong, principled people who speak truth to power and try always to do the right thing.

One of her favorite haunts was the Spuyten Duyvil Library, where she participated in two book groups, and visited several times a week with the devoted librarians.

Sue Prince,