Sue Elizabeth Sondergelt

Sue Elizabeth Sondergelt - wife, mother, teacher, businesswoman and author -passed away at her home in Fort Myers, Florida on Monday, February 5, 2024. Born March 4, 1946, the daughter of Robert and Betty (Hudson) Sondergelt, she lived most of her adult life in Connecticut where she worked in finance for United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney. Her financial position on the F-22 military program took her back and forth between manufacturing plants in Hartford, CT and West Palm Beach, FL. After many years with UTC, she chose to opt for a position with much less stress and so joined PepsiCo as they purchased Tropicana. Now back in Florida, she moved into her retirement home on Palm Island - a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. After retiring from all financial careers in industry, Sue joined the faculty of the college of business for Northern Michigan University, where she created and taught web-based courses in Accountancy to increase enrollment and diversity at the Upper Peninsula university. She retired from education to start her own business, writing and facilitating Continuing Professional Education courses for CPA’s in Lean Accounting, her area of expertise in business. She was also the author of a business novel, “The Controller as Lean Leader: Changing the Business Culture.”

Sue was preceded in death by her parents, as well as her beloved younger daughter, Elizabeth. She leaves two sons, Joel and Joshua, and another daughter, Amy. She was a devoted single mother who tirelessly worked to ensure that her four children’s every need was met. As a single mother, she balanced parenting, a full-time job, career development, and the constant pursuit of advanced degrees. She highly valued education for herself and her children.

Sue cared for all children, not just her own. As a young adult, she was active in volunteering for Friends of Children of Vietnam, gathering supplies for years and then helping to airlift 400 American-Asian orphans to the USA for adoption. She also founded her own charity, “The American Tradition,” which brought refugee families out of Red Cross camps where they had been vetted and medically tested before being brought in to private sponsor’s homes in Connecticut, helping them to assimilate into the American culture. For most of her life, Sue sponsored many Third World children, both orphans and those with only single mothers in African countries.

Sue kept the Scriptures close to her heart, with these at the top of her list: 2 Cor 12:10, John 15:16, Psalm 13:6, and Col 1: 11-12, and Isa 41:10. 

She will be laid to rest at the foot of her father’s grave in her family plot in Ferncliff Cemetery, in Springfield, OH, where she grew up as a child. 

In lieu of flowers, you may honor Sue’s memory by making a gift to the Elizabeth Anne Haarer Memorial Endowed Scholarship fund at the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford, at 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117, where her daughter Elizabeth studied classical flute Saturdays during high school before entering college. May her music be the legacy she leaves to other young students.

Mullins Memorial Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Cape Coral, is entrusted with final care.