Susan Snow-Cotter, at 45; coastal management expert

Three weeks after giving birth to her second child in 1994, Susan Snow-Cotter packed up her family and moved from Saipan in the Western Pacific to take a job with the Massachusetts Office for Coastal Zone Management.

"We moved 10,000 miles. We had a son who was 21 days old," said her husband, John Cotter. "I figured if we weren't going to get divorced because of that, we weren't going to get divorced."

At the state office, meanwhile, colleagues awaited her arrival, wondering what kind of person would willingly submit to so much stress at once.

"This woman sounded absolutely larger than life," said Anne Donovan, a longtime friend and communications director for the office. "She definitely sounded more like a legendary figure than a real person."

For the next dozen years Mrs. Snow-Cotter cut a path both real and legendary down an avenue of state government where the challenges grew increasingly more complex. She rose to direct the office that creates policy to balance environmental protection with the human use of the ocean along the Massachusetts coast.

On Wednesday she died at Brigham and Women's Hospital of inflammatory breast cancer. Mrs. Snow-Cotter, who lived in Hingham, was 45 and had been diagnosed a few weeks earlier.

"Her resume is spectacular, but none of it comes close to capturing her presence," Donovan said. "She was never daunted. You could tell her all the reasons something couldn't happen and she got it done, anyway."

Growing up in Medfield the second of four children, Susan Snow demonstrated a talent for taking charge early on.

"Susan has been the leader from day one," said her younger sister, Pamela Snow of Colrain. "She really stood out that way -- always organizing and planning something."

In a neighborhood thick with children, she organized a girls' club, planned mini-educational activities, and persuaded her friends to collectively adopt a child through Save the Children, supporting the effort through a series of tag sales and carnivals.

"She was always fitting more than could be fit into any given moment," her sister said. And as the years passed, "she always just wanted to keep doing, doing, doing. That could be fun stuff or work stuff."

A traveler since her early teens, when she visited Paris and London with her parents, she spent one summer during college in Salamanca, Spain, and two semesters away -- in Oregon and Washington, D.C.

She graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was in Seattle studying for a master's in marine affairs at the University of Washington when she met John Cotter, who had just ridden his motorcycle across the country. A relative who knew the Snow family set them up on a blind date. They first met on a Friday the 13th at the College Inn Pub near the university.

"It was just one of those things that you knew immediately," he said, his voice quavering at the memory of a lunch that in other ways was very ordinary. She ordered a burger and a Budweiser.

When she finished her master's, they moved to Saipan and she began to work in her field, all the while fitting in trips to places such as Australia and Indonesia. Their first child, Carley, was born in Saipan and their second, Nicholas, was due when her mother sent her a newspaper help wanted ad for the state job in Massachusetts.

"She started in the rank-and-file, ascended the ranks without leaving boot marks on people's backs," her husband said.

"It's not just because she just died that she's larger than life -- she always was," Donovan said. "She was our boss, but she was the kind of boss that when you went into her office you felt welcomed. And you knew whether you agreed with her or not, she would always support you."

At the Office for Coastal Zone Management, she developed the state's first plan for aquaculture. The expertise in coastal management turned Mrs. Snow-Cotter into a sought-after speaker nationally and internationally. She recently was asked to speak in Paris at an ocean management conference, Donovan said, but could not go because of her illness.

While navigating the often choppy political waters of a state agency, she chose a selfless route that colleagues found inspirational.

"She didn't have time for ego. She had no guile whatsoever," Donovan said. "She couldn't be bothered with anything but what was right and what needed to be done -- that's what was important."

Robert W. Golledge Jr., the state secretary of environmental affairs, issued a statement praising her work for the agency.

"Susan's dedication and enthusiasm for the environment, as well as her positive outlook and leadership, inspired many of her friends and colleagues, both within the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and all those she touched through her work at Coastal Zone Management," he said. "Susan's impact on our environment will be felt for many years to come."

Even at work, though, her thoughts were never far from her family, as evidenced by the prominent place given in her office to drawings her 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son made while growing up.

"Susan loved her work, and she loved to talk about work, but her eyes would really light up when she talked about Carley and Nicholas and John," Donovan said.

After she died, her husband sent an e-mail to their friends around the world.

"Susan faced this with more courage, strength, and elan than I could ever hope to muster, and gave a great example to me and the kids how to live life," he wrote. "Susan never once asked 'why me,' never questioned why it wasn't detected sooner, never blamed anyone, just focused on the future and things we could do. She more often than not was comfort to me, more than I was to her. I wish I had 45 more years with her, but am glad I had the time I did."

In addition to her husband, daughter, son, and sister, Mrs. Snow-Cotter leaves her parents, Fred and Joan Snow of Medfield; and two brothers, Fred and Stephen, both of Holliston.

The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Old Ship Church in Hingham.