Suzanne Reilly, attorney, advocate, instructor, and adventurer, has died at 81
She traveled the world from Antarctica to the Artic Circle and found satisfaction in helping the underserved and other citizens of Philadelphia. “She valued service to others,” her daughter said.
Suzanne Reilly, 81, of Philadelphia, altruistic attorney, instructor at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school, gourmet cook, and adventurer, died Friday, Sept. 16, of cancer at Good Shepherd Penn Partners Specialty Hospital at Rittenhouse.
A graduate of the Temple University School of Law, now the Beasley School of Law, Ms. Reilly served as Philadelphia’s chief deputy city solicitor for the labor and employment unit from 2008 to 2015. Earlier, she worked as an attorney for the firm of Shein & Brookman and the U.S. Resolution Trust Corp.
Her first big job out of law school included providing free representation to Philadelphians and others in need through Community Legal Services. “She felt very strongly that all people needed an advocate and access to attorneys in court,” said her son, Brendan.
A champion of women’s rights, civil rights, animal rights, the environment, and other progressive movements, Ms. Reilly “valued service to others,” her daughter Monica said. “She was a compassionate person who always looked out for the underdog.”
Ms. Reilly taught at Penn’s law school, now Penn Carey Law, from 1982 to 1991 and was known as much for her sound personal advice as her educational prowess in the classroom. “She had great relationships with her students,” her daughter said. “They often stopped by her office to talk casually about the law but also about life in general. Even her unsolicited advice usually turned out to be right.”
An adventurer at heart, Ms. Reilly also traveled the world with others who shared her wanderlust, and she visited every continent over the years, hiking in Antarctica, spying on the polar bears above the Arctic Circle, and watching the sunsets along the Hindu Kush in Asia. She made it a point to experience the natural surroundings, share photos of her family with the locals, and bring tales of her journeys back home.
“She was a little bit of a wild child,” her daughter said. “She had an interest in other people and the world.”
Born March, 9, 1941, in Philadelphia, Suzanne Mack graduated from West Philadelphia Catholic Girls High School, went off to college against her father’s wishes, and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1973 and law degree in 1976 from Temple.
She met Paul Reilly in high school, and they married, and had daughters Rebecca and Monica, and son Brendan. They divorced later.
Ms. Reilly loved to treat her family and friends to extravagant meals and “cooked (and ate) her way through every recipe in Julia Child’s cook books,“ her family said in a tribute. “She cooked the covers,” her daughter said. Her beef bourguignonne was a family favorite, and she often augmented the food with wine, candles, music, flowers, and scintillating conversation.
She spent hours shopping at Filene’s Basement on Chestnut Street, and her family wrote in a tribute that her motto was: “No outlet too far. No bargain too small.” She danced on the TV show American Bandstand in the 1950s, religiously read the New Yorker magazine throughout her life, and took her children to art galleries and museums as often as possible.
She took her own bags to the grocery store — “to the mortification of her children,” they said in an online tribute — before it was common and loved her cats Tess, Thunder, BabyKatz, and Jezebel. Her family called her Suki, and she always found her way back to favorite haunts at the Eastern Shore of Maryland
She was “encouraging and inspirational,” her children said. “She had a spark,” her daughter Monica said, “that drove her to lead an accomplished and active life.”
In addition to her children and former husband, Ms. Reilly is survived by four grandchildren, two sisters, a brother, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.
She requested that no services be held.
Donations in her name may be made to Penn Medicine Hospice, 150 Monument Rd., Suite 300, Bala Cynwyd, Pa. 19004, and Penn Medicine’s Deenie Greitzer & Daniel G. Haller, MD, Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology Professorship, 3535 Market St., Suite 750, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104.