Susan Bainbridge Hay, 95, died January 26, 2020, at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, MA, in the company of family, after a brief illness.

Sue was born Susan Bainbridge Goodale in Boston on September 12, 1924, the daughter of Dr Robert L Goodale and Susan Bainbridge (Sturgis) Goodale. She grew up in Cambridge and spent her summers in Ipswich at the family's historic 1669 home. She attended Buckingham School (class of 1942) and Vassar College (class of 1945), where she majored in Child Studies.

Sue married Duncan Hay of Philadelphia, PA, in 1950, and the couple moved to Conantum in Concord, MA, in 1952, where Sue lived for more than 50 years until 2003, when she moved to Carleton Willard Village in Bedford, MA. Duncan was a man of many talents who played the viola in local string quartets and made two harpsichords by hand. Duncan enjoyed a long career as a research scientist at MIT, Harvard and DuPont. He predeceased Sue in 1989.

Sue and Duncan brought up three sons. Eldest son William, a lawyer in Hong Kong, is married to Showchia Ho. Their son James is married to Yvonne Wu, and they are raising grandchildren Victor and Vivienne in San Mateo, CA. Their daughter Amanda lives in New York City with her partner Matt Martinez and chihuahua Sammy.

Second son Andrew, a computer specialist, lives in Bradford, MA, with his partner Jean.

Third son George, a professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology lives in Oak Park, IL, with his wife Virginia Herrick Pitre-Hay. Their elder son Patrick Pitre is married to Val Karimkhani, and they are raising grandchildren Sage, Maxwell and Carter in Orange County, CA. Their second son Leon Pitre lives in New Orleans with his wife Kerri Dean, and their bulldogs Canolli and Bette.

In addition to her children and grandchildren, Sue is also survived by her sister Maisie (Goodale) Crowther of Brattleboro, VT, and numerous nieces and nephews. Her sister Jane Carter Goodale and brother Dr. Robert L. Goodale, Jr., predeceased her.

Sue's first job was assistant to the director of Hale House in Boston's South End from 1946 to 1949. Then, she focused on marriage and family until her children were older. In the late 1960s, she returned to graduate school at Simmons College, where she received her Masters of Library Science in 1971. She became a reference librarian at Wellesley College in 1972, and then served as Assistant Director of the Bedford Public Library from 1973 to 1979. At the Bedford Library, she was responsible for restoring and displaying the Revolutionary War-era Bedford Battle Flag, the oldest existing flag in the United States. As chair of Concord's Records and Archives Committee, she managed the relocation of several hundred years of Concord's valuable historical records to a new dedicated facility within the town library.

She was an active member of the Massachusetts Library Association and chairman of several organizations in graduate school and in her local community, especially the Conantum Garden Club and the Carleton Willard Garden Club.

She edited the autobiography of her grandfather James Barnes, the founder of the Burlington Northern Railway, for internet publication, and translated the diaries of her great grandmother Henrietta Goodale, the wife of Professor George Lincoln Goodale, the Harvard professor who brought the famous glass flowers to Harvard's Peabody Museum.

Sue traced her ancestry back to the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She is a descendant of Rebecca Nourse of Salem Witch Trial fame, whose son Benjamin married Sue's ancestor Mary Goodale. She is also a descendant of Commodore William Bainbridge, a naval hero of the War of 1812. As the oldest descendant of Commodore Bainbridge in her generation, Sue was invited by the US Navy in 2004 to christen the USS Bainbridge (DDG 96), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer active in the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf. During this period, the Bainbridge was called to rescue Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama from Somali pirates, which became the subject of the movie Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks.

Sue has traveled widely. After college, she studied at the University of Utrecht, Holland, and traveled behind the Iron Curtain in the late 1940s before returning to the United States. She lived in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1971 to 1972 while Duncan was a visiting scientist at CERN, the international high-energy physics laboratory. She and Duncan also traveled to Hong Kong and Taiwan for son William's wedding.

Sue was admired by a wide circle of friends for her intellectual curiosity and kindness towards those around her. Her family joins with her friends in celebrating a long and wonderful life well lived and the many happy memories that endure.

A memorial service will be held at Carleton Willard Village for residents and staff on Friday, March 20, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. A memorial service for family and friends will be held Saturday, August 1, 2020 at the First Parish Church in Bedford, MA. Burial arrangements are private.