07/08/2025
Susan Marie Maxey
Susan Marie Maxey, born 1946, Indiana, died 2025. She is survived by husband George F. Maxey, her sister Leanne Wiberg, and Leanne's two children and four grandchildren, friends and great neighbors.
She took a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Science Education from the University of Texas at Austin and subsequently taught junior high school. Later, she took a Masters in Earth Science and Oceanography and was ABD for a doctorate specializing in Palynology. Susan's interests in earth sciences and oceanography were inspired, in part, by courses taught by Dr. Robert Boyer. While working on her Doctoral degree, she taught a high school. Before completing her dissertation she was hired by Dallas County Community College, Brookhaven Campus. There she found her calling and taught Earth Science, Physical and Historical Geology for the next 33 years, retiring as head of the Geology Department.
She loved geology and considered her students her extended family. Field trips were a staple in all her classes; Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas were an extended part of her classroom. Susan and her student helped excavate a set of hadrosaur tracks from the Grapevine spillway, in Texas. She was a licensed scuba diver, taking students for summer fieldwork in the Caribbean. Susan was dedicated to the students' education and often extended assistance when a student needed extra help or emotional support. Prior to her retirement, a 3,600 pound Granite boulder was brought from Ardmore, Oklahoma Meridian quarry and placed outside of her classroom with a commemorative plaque honoring her years of teaching and dedication to the Brookhaven Geology program.
Susan was a long-time member of Highland Village Lions Club, Project manager for Habitat for Humanity and Dallas Paleontology Society, started a clean-up the Trinity River project with her students, loved to do needlework and knitting, and supporting the financial wellbeing of Restore and Goodwill.
Susan met George Maxey, a Geologist at University of North Texas, at a Gem and Mineral show and within the year they were married. George and Susan retired to Hot Springs Village and enjoyed the lake and the best neighbors to be found anywhere. Susan attended Faith Lutheran Church in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas participated in neighborhood book club when she could, loved to go to the pool or swim in the lake, was instrumental in starting the Twinkle light boat parades and Ruth Hamm's Lake Cortez French Horn concerts. Also, Susan and a group of neighbors, gathering inspiration from a couple of bottles of wine, named all the coves on Lake Cortez. She adopted two Greyhounds {Murphy and Maddy), made pets out of the chipmunks, named the fish and turtles in the lake and considered the Canada Geese friends. Susan was an eclectic individual, with a delightfully fractured sense of humor, but never met a stranger. She will be sorely missed.
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