Susan Fera Assmann lost a courageous battle with cancer on May 30, 2020 at her home in Waltham MA. She was 63.

She came to Dartmouth from Pennington NJ, and lived in Cohen freshman year. She majored in math and graduated summa cum laude. “She was scary-brilliant,” recalled Mark Germano,“so mesmerizing in discussion that I wondered how in hell I was ever admitted to the same school as she.” Anne Barschall met her in yoga class. “She became one of my best friends in college, though we drifted apart later. She was unusual in growing 2 inches while in college.” Writing in 2020, Anne said she could still remember “what her voice sounded like, how she walked, how she did her hair, the ways she moved her hands when she talked.”

Susan earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 and a M.S. in biostatistics from the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health, Amherst in 1994.

She was a Principal Statistician at HealthCore (formerly New England Research Institute} in Watertown, MA where she worked for a week shy of 26 years, following a career as a mathematics professor at UMass Lowell and at Regis College in Weston, MA.

Susan was the co-author of over 60 scientific publications and her statistical analyses of data from clinical trials will aid many patients.  Those interested in arcane mathematica will appreciate that Susan had an Erdös number of 2, meaning a close collaborative distance from famed Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdös.

At Dartmouth and throughout the rest of her life, Susan was a student of the English art of change ringing. “Instead of ringing tunes, we ring permutations. Because you have to remember the rules for switching from one permutation to the next in a given method, and keep track of your turn to ring, it is an almost zen-like practice.” She was also an enthusiastic amateur player of the harpsichord and clavichord, and an ardent supporter of the early music community in Boston.

Susan is survived by her husband and soulmate, Jeffrey Del Papa (who built her a clavichord!)  her sister, Sarah Assmann of State College, PA, and other family members.

External obituary. Post memories, photos, etc. here.

6/13/2020.