Susan Bivin Aller

Susan Bivin Aller was born in Omaha, Nebraska on May 15, 1934, to Dorothy True and M. Nagel Bivin. Her only sibling, Charles, was four years older. She attended local public schools and met her future husband Robert Aller on their first day as freshmen at Benson High School. After high school, Bob went to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Susan attended the University of Omaha (now University of Nebraska at Omaha), where she graduated magna cum laude with majors in English literature and creative writing. Susan and Bob were married on July 2, 1955, and spent the next year in Yellow Springs while Bob completed his degree in economic geography and business. In the summer of 1956, they moved to New York City, where Bob began his master’s program at Columbia University. He was in the first class to receive the MS degree in International Business in 1958. His 20-year career with Bendix International began soon after graduation. Meanwhile, Susan was honing her writing skills as an editorial assistant on the magazine of the Congregational Christian Churches (soon to become the United Church of Christ). A few years later, she became editor of publicity and publications at The Riverside Church in NYC, which was Bob and Susan’s church home. In 1964 the couple’s first son, Hugh Bivin Aller, was born in NYC. Bendix International sent Bob to Europe in 1966 on an assignment, which stretched to nearly eight years in Barcelona and three and a half more years in Paris. Their second son, Benjamin Dudley Aller, was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1968. In addition to adjusting to motherhood and new cultures, Susan took on leadership roles in international women’s social and church organizations in Spain and France. Building community among expats, writing promotional and inspirational materials, and leading women’s boards and committees became her full-time work outside home, family, and corporate-wife responsibilities. When the family returned to the U.S. in 1977, they live briefly in Bloomfield Hills, MI; but in 1979 Bob began a final career with Loctite Corp. in Hartford and they moved to West Hartford. Over the next decades, Susan participated in a variety of activities related to children’s books, libraries, historical sites, and community organizations. She chaired a conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and was a founder of the Children’s Book Fair at UConn in Storrs. She cochaired the capital campaign for the Northeast Children’s Literature Collections at UConn in Storrs, and supported campaigns for the Hartford and West Hartford Public Libraries, the Mark Twain and Noah Webster Houses, Hartford Interval House, and the New Britain Museum of American Art. She served as president of the Town & County Club and of the Saturday Morning Club of Hartford. She and Bob opened their historic house on Prospect Avenue to many events for fundraising and hospitality to visiting speakers and small conferences. Bob died of ALS in 2000. Susan wrote many essays and stories about her years abroad and about her ancestors in a series of self-published books she called “Fine Print.” Some of them were published in The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and other papers. She wrote a regular column of essays for the West Hartford News, also called “Fine Print.” In 1994 Susan achieved a lifelong goal of publishing a book for young people. She was 60 when J.M.Barrie: The Magic Behind Peter Pan was published by Lerner, an educational press. This was followed over the next decade by fourteen more books, mostly biographies of famous people, that were marketed primarily to schools and libraries. Her last major writing project – at the age of 90 – was a history of Duncaster to mark the 40th anniversary of the life care community in Bloomfield, CT, where she moved in 2015. Susan is survived by her son Hugh and his wife Renate, of Princeton, NJ, and their children Nicole Wolman of Capetown, S.A. and Steven Aller of Malvern, PA. and great-grandchildren Lucas Scott, Lydia and George Aller. And by son Benjamin Aller and his wife Marie-Christine, of Paris, France, and their children Audrey, David, Carl, and Jonathan Aller – dual American and French citizens of the world. Susan’s ashes will be interred next to Bob's and dozens of her ancestors in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Omaha, Nebraska. She was predeceased by her parents and older brother Charles. It is a long-awaited homecoming. Memorial gifts may be made to the Duncaster Foundation or Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford CT.

Susan Bivin Aller

May 15, 1934 - June 25, 2026