Longtime educator, talented origami artist
Paper wasn’t simply an inert, flat surface to Sue Neff. It was unrealized art with limitless possibilities.
“It truly is surprising to see something wonderful develop from a sheet of paper,” she told the Pittsburgh PostGazette in a November 1997 interview.
A longtime educator at the South Side Elementary School in Hookstown, Beaver County, Mrs. Neff cofounded and led the Origami Club of Pittsburgh for more than 30 years.
“She was really amazing,” said her friend Debra McLean, treasurer of the origami club. “She loved to share her knowledge of origami and teach it. She was thrilled to show somebody how to fold and pass on the love of origami to other people.”
Mrs. Neff died at her Sewickley home on Dec. 9 of an aortic aneurysm. She was 82.
Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Neff moved to Pittsburgh as a toddler when her father, a construction engineer, was transferred here.
She never forgot her introduction to origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, in elementary school.
“I have distinct memories of folding paper during my second-grade class,” she said in a January 1979 story in the Post-Gazette.
After graduating from Perry High School in 1956, Mrs. Neff studied at what was then the Pennsylvania College for Women, where she earned a liberal arts degree in 1959.
During the summer of her junior year, she sailed from Montreal to Europe and learned Italian while living with a family in that country.
Mrs. Neff tried her hand at advertising, working as a department store copywriter and art director at television stations before pursuing a master’s degree in 1970 in art education from the University of Pittsburgh.
She met Sidney Neff through a mutual friend at work, who suggested the two nature lovers should couple up. They married in 1971.
“She loved the outdoors — spelunking, rock climbing and skiing,” said Mr. Neff, a devoted angler. “We spent a month honeymooning in England and Ireland.”
Mrs. Neff started working as an art teacher at the South Side school, a job she loved until her retirement 26 years later, her husband said.
“Her mother and sister were teachers and she always wanted to teach,” he said. “She was such a great teacher who always wanted to reach out and help someone.”
The two had many adventures, including spending two weeks in 1974 in Odessa, Ukraine, and visiting Moscow for Mr. Neff’s work.
They trout-fished, climbed and skied in the Catskills and Rocky mountains, along with the Julian Alps in Austria and Slovenia.
At home, the couple restored an early 20th century house in Sewickley. Shortly afterward, Mrs. Neff took a sabbatical in 1982 to study printmaking at Carnegie Mellon University.
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“She developed the ‘Japan in the Schools’ program for the Japan-America Society and it really grew and has even been a model for other Japan- America societies across the country,” said Elise Moersch, former executive director. “The idea was to expose Pittsburgh children to the cultures and traditions of Japan. She had a cohort of volunteers that she trained and brought to classrooms for storytelling, culture crafts and holiday celebrations.”
Mrs. Neff traveled to Japan twice — “a dream come true,” according to her husband and she sponsored a Japanese teacher at the South Side school.
In recent years, Mrs. Neff taught origami, cycling and cooking classes at the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning at CMU.
Mr. Neff said the couple’s pair of Siberian cats — Sashka and Anika — already miss his wife. As he does.
“We were kindred spirits that guided each other aesthetically, physically and spiritually,” he said. “She was my sounding board as I was hers.”
Along with her husband, Mrs. Neff was survived by a niece and nephew, along with their children.
She was preceded in death by her sister, Anne Allardice McCourt, and her brother, William D. Allardice Jr.
A memorial service will be held at a future time at Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside.
In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to: The Parkinson’s Foundation of W PA., 575 Lincoln Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, 15212, or Friends of Music at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206.