NORWICH — In 1993, then-principal Susan Finer interviewed a recent college graduate for a job teaching home economics at Hanover’s Richmond Middle School.

That recent graduate, Anissa Morrison, of Tunbridge, got the job, which was her first teaching position. Finer became Morrison’s mentor — a role she played for dozens of other teachers who taught at the school over Finer’s 21 years leading it.

Morrison has since become associate principal at Richmond Middle School and Finer’s influence continues.

“She — for me — carefully balanced being a strong woman and a strong leader with being a strong person,” said Morrison. “She really set the culture of a school community where we seek to take care of each other and I think we work to cultivate that culture at the Richmond School still today.”

Finer, a longtime Norwich resident who left her mark on education in the Dresden School District, died at age 77 on June 22, 2024, from esophageal cancer.

She and her husband, Chad Finer, were raised in Brookline, Mass., and attended the same high school. After Finer graduated from Smith College, the couple spent two years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone.

After returning to the United States, Finer began her teaching career at The Putney School. She later got a job as a social studies teacher at Hanover High School, before becoming principal of Richmond Middle School in 1986 — a role she held until her retirement in 2007.

Middle school can be a time of great transition for children who are growing out of childhood and starting to gain more independence. It can also be a time of big emotions for students, requiring educators to be intuitive to their needs and recognize that they all mature at different paces.

“It takes a special type of person and that was Susan,” said Rebecca Holcombe, of Norwich, who Finer hired as a social studies teacher in the early 1990s. “A big part of middle school is helping young people feel successful, but also learn how to take responsibility for their own learning and Susan was very good at that.”

Finer supported students, in part, by supporting her staff. Morrison, for example, led a class where students operated a Snack Shack: They put together a business plan that involved making food, marketing it and selling it.

“Part of her strong advocacy for teachers was to make their ideas a possibility,” Morrison said.

Finer also supported staff who wanted to take the next step in their careers including Holcombe, who later became principal at what was then Fairlee Elementary School before becoming Vermont’s Secretary of Education.

“Everything about Susan was about making it possible for other people to shine,” said Holcombe, who is now a Democratic state representative.

Discipline is a necessary part for every school principal and Finer’s approach was to lift up students through humor and thoughtfulness.

“She never attacked them as a person. She always was very careful to distinguish between what a bad person was and when a person had done a bad thing,” said Susan Boyle, who worked as a paraprofessional and chaired the curriculum committee when Finer was principal. “I never saw a kid exit morose. They really seemed to get the idea that they upset the community a bit, but they would do better next time.”

Finer’s ability to listen to others while making decisions that affected the school as a whole was one of the characteristics that made her an effective leader, said Donna Largent, who Finer hired in 1999 as a school counselor.

“She never interviewed without a team,” Largent, of Enfield, said. “Her leadership was very much by consensus.”

That extended to the budget process, where Finer and staff members from each department would gather to go over every expense, line by line.

In the 1990s, discussions picked up about what to do with the aging middle school, which was attached to Hanover High School and a tight squeeze. Finer frequently spoke to School Board members and other officials about what the school community needed.

During one meeting where a discussion about expenses got pretty heated, Boyle recalled, Finer saying — with “an absolutely wonderfully straight look on her face” — “We looked at the budget for sixth, seventh and eighth grade and we realize that if you spent X amount of dollars and sent all of the 8th graders to Paris for a year you wouldn’t have too many people in the school. Everybody would be happy and they’d all speak French.”

The hyperbole did the trick, turning the mood of the room from one of contention to one of cooperation.

“That was the way she could kind of turn a discussion that was getting heated around, by making them realize they all had the same goals in mind,” Boyle, of Hanover, said. “That was her strategy in a lot of difficult situations.”

As the project got underway, there continued to be concerns about the amount of money being spent. At one point, people questioned putting in a dark room for a photography course, Morrison recalled.

Steel prices were rising and the cost of a special chemical drain needed for the space became more expensive.

“Susan was like, ‘No, this is something for those students (for whom) it’s their thing. We want to be able to offer that’,” Morrison recalled.

When it came time to build Richmond Middle School on Lyme Road, Finer knew that there were businesses and residents who lived nearby that weren’t exactly thrilled with the plan to put a school where there wasn’t one before.

“Before we even moved to Lyme Road we were forging relationships with neighbors,” Largent said. Student musicians started performing at Kendal at Hanover and a seventh-grade class became pen pals with older adults living there. “That’s the kind of thing she was so good at.”

Finer’s ability to build connections extended into her personal life, which was also a mix of the professional. Her four children got used to seeing teachers at their home for potluck meals.

Food was one of the ways she showed her love. She made dishes for staff meetings and during the move from the old middle school to the new one, she had aprons made for staff that said: “Until we eat again.”

Finer’s ability to build community was something her children noticed. For about 20 years, her husband Chad Finer worked nights as an emergency room doctor and she worked during the days. During that time they were raising their children and keeping up with their myriad activities, in addition to those associated with their professional lives. Susan Finer wasn’t daunted. She seemed to have an unlimited supply of energy. Part of that, her daughter Emily Finer said, came from knowing which details of life to let go of.

“Having the neatest house became not a priority,” Emily Finer, of Norwich, said.

She always made extra food — and knew how to tweak a recipe when more people showed up.

“There were four of us here growing up and ... there was never a night when we didn’t bring ... two to five stragglers in with us,” her son Ben Finer said. She was especially fond of cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

Friends naturally gravitated toward the Finer home, where in addition to a good meal, they’d find a supportive environment. No invitation was ever needed.

“Everybody felt comfortable just coming in; stopping by,” Emily Finer said.

If Finer was feeding a group with different dietary preferences, she’d start with something simple like a curry, and vegans, vegetarians and carnivores could add what they liked to it.

Finer remembered small details about people, their likes and dislikes. When she learned Emily’s husband liked specific type of rolls from Dan & Whit’s, she made sure they were always in the house when he visited; if she thought others in the house were eating too many, she’d squirrel them away to make sure they didn’t run out.

At the Finer home, there’s an apartment that the family welcomed people to stay as they got back on their feet. Finer had a way of encountering people at their worst, seeing their potential and helping them figure out their next steps.

“She never called attention to it,” Holcombe said. “She just gave someone a bed and a meal and a lot of love when they needed it.”

After retiring, Finer taught in a teacher education program at Dartmouth College and classes at The Family Place. She was an expert bridge player and enjoyed reading. In recent years, after Emily Finer moved back to Norwich, Susan Finer delighted in spending time with her two grandchildren, Addie and Lewie.

In the weeks since Finer’s death, her family and friends have received letters from former students, faculty and others whose lives she influenced.

“It was never about Susan, it was always about the work. I think the people who worked with her every day really understood that,” Holcombe said. “They knew she was behind them every bit of the way.”

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.