08/15/2026
Susan Rochester passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of May 5, surrounded by family and friends after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
Born Jan. 24, 1963, to parents Robert and Joan Shanks, she began life in El Monte, California, moving soon afterwards to their first house in Azusa. After a brief time in Glendora, the family moved to Cottage Grove, Oregon, finally settling in Roseburg in 1976.
Family vacations were often spent in the family truck and camper, often in Eastern Oregon where they would fish and cook over a fire pit. An extended trip to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, sharing the top of the camper with her younger brother Rob for two weeks, likely helped establish her life-long love of travel.
Susan graduated from Roseburg High School in 1981. While attending classes at Umpqua Community College the following spring, Susan met the love of her life, Mark Rochester. After a years-long courtship, they were married in 1988, settling in Sutherlin, Oregon.
During that time, Susan tried her hand at many occupations including photography, photofinishing, banking and running her own specialty shop, finally returning to school to pursue a degree in art history, earning both her Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Oregon in 1995. She began her teaching career at Sutherlin High School where she taught social studies and art for seven years. Susan eventually found her way back to UCC in 2002, where she became an Associate Professor of Art, Gallery Curator, and Chair of Fine and Performing Arts. During her twenty-two years at Umpqua, she taught art history, photography, painting, and book arts along with other classes.
Susan was the recipient of a number of grants and fellowships during her time at the college. She was named a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar in 2012, traveling to New Mexico to participate in studies of Georgia O’Keeffe and the New Mexico landscape tradition. In 2013, she was granted a sabbatical during which she traveled to Ukraine and Eastern Europe to concentrate on personal photography projects. She was a Fulbright Scholar in North Cyprus during the summer of 2017.
Susan participated in a number of artist’s residencies, including Biophilia-Nova Scotia and Playa-Summer Lake, Oregon. One of Susan’s art projects, Trespasses, was exhibited regionally and in New York City, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan and San Francisco.
A world traveler, Susan had ventured with Mark to Europe multiple times, most recently in the fall of 2025, when they visited Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They both loved the American Southwest and made many a road trip to that part of the country. Another memorable trip in 2018 brought Susan, Mark and Susan’s parents Joan and Bob together in one car for a month-long cross-country trip to see Susan’s brother Rob in Alabama. Susan also made several solo trips, visiting places including the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, to Greece and its islands, and accompanying a friend on a trip to Alaska along the Alcan highway.
Susan was a constant and voracious reader, always with a book nearby. She was also a lover of nature and animals. She cared for her horses, Gregor, Yuri and Finn, for several years at the property of her mother-in-law JoAnn Rochester. Cats were her constant companions at the home she shared with Mark. While she had studied and worked with numerous forms of media during her life, photography was always her true love. She began with film cameras, making the transition to the digital age of photography with ease. Anyone who followed her online was treated to her keen eye and ability to find the perfect photo whenever she traveled including her daily series highlighting the beauty of the evening skies.
She is survived by her husband Mark, parents Joan and Bob Shanks, brother Rob Shanks (Joy), brother-in-law Kent Rochester (Jeanne), sister-in-law Angelina Palmer (Herney), nephews and nieces Toby and Hailey Rochester, Gracie and Kianna Palmer, Hailey and Jeremiah Pillimue and Jakob and Caleb Flemons as well as Ringo and Chaco, the cats she shared with husband Mark.
A Celebration of Life will take place from 1 to 3 p.m., on Sept. 19, 2026, at the Southern Oregon W**e Institute on the Umpqua Community College campus. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Dr. John Wm. and Betty Unruh Scholarship for the Arts at Umpqua Community College or to Saving Grace Humane Society, both in Roseburg, Oregon.
