

Obituary of Sue Moran Thole
Sue Moran Thole, daughter of Carmalita and Lawrence Moran of Arthurdale, WV, died on January 11th in a San Luis Obispo, CA, hospital. She lived 24 hours following a dissected aorta. During those hours, she visited with her husband and stepchildren and talked by phone with her siblings. She noted that she had enjoyed a great life and had been able to do everything she wanted. “We all have to go sometime,” she said, in matter-of-fact acceptance that her time was quickly running out. Her sudden and unexpected death—she was healthy and active until the moment her aorta split—was a shock to her family and friends. We will miss her deeply.
Thelma Sue Moran was born September 23, 1942, and grew up in Arthurdale, WV. Growing up, she often worked on the farm with her father, helping to bring in the hay and manage the animals. Among her favorite memories were riding the tractor on her dad’s lap, jumping out of the hay mow, and telling her mom all about her school day. She once wrote that, “My little piece of heaven on earth is the acreage that Mom and Dad owned in Arthurdale. Growing up there in the 1950s grounded me for life.” She was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
While attending West Virginia University, she met her first husband, Richard Frisch of New Brunswick, NJ, and the two moved to Connecticut, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in math. She later earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of California.
Her career ranged from teaching high school math in Connecticut to computer programming at McDonnell Douglas and finally, to heading up administrative computing for the University of California at Irvine, where she was for most of her work-life while living in Mission Viejo and Irvine. Not long after she retired, she moved to Grover Beach, CA. An avid reader, she moved one ton of books, and her collection continued to grow.
Sue and Richard traveled extensively and once spent an entire year traveling around the world by ship, plane, and car; sometimes camping and staying in hostels along the way. They spent two months of that time in New Zealand, making lifelong friends, a month in Australia, and six months in Europe.
She planned a significant annual trip every year thereafter. She learned to pilot a sailboat and to fly an airplane, earning her private pilot’s license. She noted that “Learning how to fly is exciting – the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life, but routine flying is boring” because once “you trim the plane for straight and level, it flies itself.” She and Richard flew many trips in their small plane. She enjoyed flying to Catalina Island for lunch one day. Richard died in 1981, but travel remained a central part of her life.
She was a great fan of the national parks and made many trips to Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and others. In 1995 she planned a three-week trip to France and Switzerland which she enjoyed with her two sisters and brother-in-law. She belonged to two travel clubs and hosted many travel-club members in her home. She was a wonderful resource for travel planning.
In February of 2000 she married Paul Thole of Grover Beach, whom she met through square dancing, and who shared her love of travel. He was a great life partner to her. Sue wrote that, “Paul liked to say that I skipped the hard part of having and raising kids and, by marrying him got three great kids and seven sweet grandkids. I had to agree.”
Among her varied interests were gardening/landscaping, photography, art, birding, reading, and writing. She belonged to book clubs, was a master gardener, served as a volunteer naturalist at Casper’s Wilderness Park, attended photography workshops, and wrote on Medium.
She is survived by her husband, Paul; her stepchildren: Suzy Arena and husband Anthony, Rebecca Foreman, Tim Thole and his wife Qingmei Chen, all of the San Francisco area, and their seven children (Elizabeth, Anthony & Jordan Arena; Sean, Evan & Jack Foreman; Kiran Thole) - whom she loved and often read to, sharing her love of reading. She is also survived by three siblings: Sherrie Moran of Santa Fe, NM; Kathy Moran and her husband Phil Nicholson of Parkersburg, WV; Kenneth Moran and his wife Jeanette Kesner Moran of Arthurdale; niece Stephanie Waters, her husband Lionel and their two children, Lionel and Asher of Scott Depot, WV; nephew Shawn Moran and his daughter Kaylee of Arthurdale; and numerous beloved cousins. Her mother, father and first husband preceded her in death.
Her family plans to host a remembrance in West Virginia later.

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