Dedication

Mission Point Resource Center is dedicated to Susan Voorhees Carter, a faithful participant of missions in Honduras for more than 26 years.

Dedicación

A Biosketch

Susan Voorhees was born in Washington, DC, the daughter of Lt. Cmdr Malcolm and Nell Voorhees. Susan grew up in Schenectady, New York and Pittsfield, Mass. and spent her winters snow sledding with her older brother Stephen, where she gained a lifelong love for snow. After her junior year of high school, her family moved to Picayune, MS where her father was employed on the Nation´s Space Program. It was in Picayune during her senior year of High School that Susan met Ronnie Carter. Susan and Ronnie were married in Slidell, LA on May 21, 1966.

At the time of their marriage, Ronnie was in the Air Force, and the newlyweds were stationed in Biloxi, MS, and then in Bossier City, LA. In May, 1968, Ronnie was deployed to the Philippine Islands for an 18 month tour. Susan stayed in Picayune with her parents, and during that time began her employment with NASA at the Mississippi Test Facility which was to become the Stennis Space Center. Susan continued her employment at the Center for 31 years, and retired there in 2003.

Her first ten years at the Center, Susan worked for NASA and was fortunate to be an observer to several historical events during that time. As a young secretary in 1969 she was one of only a handful of employees who were able to return immediately to work when hurricane Camille devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In the weeks following the hurricane, Susan was drafted to serve as Secretary to the Center Director as he provided leadership to a major recovery effort to residents all along the Coast. Susan was on the front line of helping to coordinate those efforts.

Susan was later assigned as Secretary to a branch of engineers responsible for the static testing of the first and second stages of the Saturn rocket engines, the launch vehicle responsible for taking astronauts to the moon during the later stages of NASA´s Apollo program. Susan was privileged to witness many of these tests, and was recognized by the NASA Administrator as a member of the large NASA team responsible for the success of the nation´s Apollo Program. Several of the engineers Susan supported went on to distinguished careers in a variety of NASA programs. One of the engineers Susan supported became the Resident Manager of the Shuttle Engine Program and was responsible for static testing of every engine that flew on every Space Shuttle from its maiden flight in 1981 through his retirement in the early 90s. Another of the engineers she supported moved on to become Director of the Stennis Space Center, and later the Director of Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. All of these distinguished NASA engineers continued on a first name basis with Susan at the time of her retirement in 2003.

After her work on the Apollo Program, Susan worked for NASA´s Earth Resources Laboratory at the Stennis Space Center. While Susan was there as a management assistant, the Laboratory developed much of the remote sensing technology that became the basis for land mapping and assessment technologies now used extensively by many federal agencies including the Forest Service, US Geological Survey, and NAVY Mapping and Charting Units. Susan played a key role in providing administrative support to the NASA engineers and scientists responsible for developing these technologies.

After leaving NASA to raise her family, Susan returned to Stennis Space Center to work for the US NAVY. She worked in a variety of administrative positions but was selected to an Upward Mobility Program and received training as a computer programmer. After training she was assigned as a Program Analyst, and worked in that capacity until the time of her retirement. During her employment she helped to develop and maintain a database of Remote Sensing Technologies including assessments of their capabilities and applications used worldwide throughout the Department of Defense. To accomplish these tasks, Susan traveled to Washington, California, Hawaii, and several other states to provide assessment of Remote Sensing applications at different military installations. For more than three years, she served as technical coordinator for the Naval Research Laboratories Digital Mapping, Charting, and Geodesy Analysis Program. She composed, edited, and published a quarterly newsletter and coordinated a yearly interest group meeting for over 1500 scientists from the Department of Defense and other government agencies. Over the years with both NASA and NAVY, Susan consistently received outstanding performance ratings, and earned recognition from a number of key Technical Experts for her work in support of those programs. She also was listed as coauthor or contributor on more than a dozen published NAVY Technical Reports that were cited as authoritative in the field for a number of years.

In addition to her employment, Susan used her administrative talents extensively in support of church and church-related activities. She wrote, edited, and published bulletins for churches she attended in Picayune and Slidell. For the Bayou Oaks congregation she not only edited and published the bulletin, she also developed and maintained logs of individual attendance covering several years. She faithfully supported Ron as he served as Deacon and Shepherd for congregations where they attended, and worked as a co-teacher and helper in the primary and nursery classes when her children were small.

Susan also served on the Board of Directors of organizations active in mission outreach efforts to Honduras. She maintained and published minutes of meetings for more than ten years while Ron served as an Officer for three separate organizations. She edited and published Mission Newsletters, and loaned her budgeting and financial skills to the mission programs. Following the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1998, Susan maintained financial and accounting records for contributions in excess of 1.2 million dollars in relief funds. She provided acknowledgement to contributors, and tracked the distribution of funds to a variety of relief and ministry programs developed as a result of the response to the disaster. One of the programs closest to Susan´s heart was a scholarship program to assist young people in attending school. Susan continued to maintain accounting for the scholarship program, or parts of it, from its beginning through the time of her illness at the end of 2006. With her help, the program provided support to hundreds of children and adults, allowing them to continue their education which would have been impossible otherwise.

In spite of her career accomplishments, Susan, who was an avid reader, also maintained a nurturing home environment for her three children, Sandi, Tammi, and Ryan. All three children attended Christian Colleges, and have gone on to their own successful families and careers, making Susan, at the time of her death, the proud Nana of six grandchildren with one more on the way.