Obituary: In remembrance of Suzanne ‘Sukie’ Rebecca Zeeve

By Rachel Zeeve

If anyone ever did the phrase, “force of nature” any justice, it was Suzanne “Sukie” Rebecca Zeeve. You could see it in the easy way that lemurs and eagles perched on her shoulders in photos from her time studying animal behavior in Madagascar and the Republic of Congo. You could hear it in the way she could make any dog levitate with joy just by singing a nonsense song with their name in it. Sukie made every creature feel understood.

She was the first woman zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo. With a Ph.D. in Comparative Biopsychology from SUNY Stony Brook, she was a fearless advocate for animals and served on a FEMA veterinary emergency response team. She rode horses, trained dogs and captained kayaks. A tireless creative, she played guitar and had an infinite collection of books on every subject. Looking at her prolific doodles, paintings and sketches, you can almost hear her laughing as she made them.

She was also my aunt. In elementary and middle school, I would spend part of each summer at her house.These weeks were nothing short of what Sukie herself was: magic. In the evenings, I’d tell her all about my day at horse camp. Over ice cream sandwiches, we’d cover everything from music and books, to politics, to how best to do an Eric Cartman impression. Whichever dogs happened to be staying over at the time would hang onto Sukie’s every word, and so would I. She was everything I wanted to be. And she still is.

A multi-decade resident of East Setauket with deep roots in the community, she will be profoundly missed. Completely adored by her friends and family, the ecosystem Sukie left behind feels incomplete without her. But she was an artist as much as she was a scientist — the beauty of her memory is just as real as her intrepid presence was.