Suzy Foss:
CLASS OF 1968
Point Loma High SchoolClass of 1968
San diego, CA
Suzy's Story
My first word, or so I have been told, was horse and I was riding before I was three. I took lessons for over 17 years and Valerie Holmes was my best friend and horse buddy. I went to Silver Gate Elementary (grew up next door to it) and was known for my athleticism, especially in running and jumping events. That continued all the way through school plus volley ball. I was a Brownie and then a Girl Scout, on the track teams and I have always loved to read. I was a beach bum and skateboard addict. In high school I was not involved in school activities something I greatly regret. Instead I dated an older man and super surfer dude so spent a great deal of my high school years following the next best wave. We married the winter after graduation.
I attended USIU (old Cal Western) after high school, married and had two boys, divorced and moved to Montana in 1975. In Montana I attended the University of Montana and I finished my education (Early Childhood Ed and Sociology), worked with Head Start. In 1982 I met the man of my dreams and we blended our families with his son and daughter and my boys. My husband Lee is from a long time ranching family here in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana and we moved onto the ranch and built a home in 1986. Lee and I work the ranch and he is a real estate broker as well and has been a top producer in our region for over 25 years.
After leaving Head Start I became a travel agent working for a friend. In 1983 I opened my first agency and then sold it two years later. I then purchased another agency and later opened a branch on the campus of the University of Montana in 1988. I then added a tour operating business (inbound) and sold the works in 1993 after I created a travel agent school with six branches across the state of Montana. We sold the school in 1995 and I went full time on our ranch. I have been breeding Egyptian Arabian Horses for 35 years and working Border Collies for the past 7 years.
Our children are grown and we will now have 8 grandchildren. Much to the girls dismay, we have 3 girls and 5 boys. We have tons of fun as a family. Lee taught skiing at the local area for 30 years so we are all avid skiers, horse back riding is a must as we have a working cattle ranch and live right next to the largest wilderness area in the lower US. Lee and all of the kids hunt (I heal critters), we camp, water ski on the local lakes and do a lot a family time over meals at each others homes. We are active in our local church and we have been active in land use and private property rights issues for the past 15 years.
In 2000 we experienced wildfires that burned 365,000 acres of our valley. We live in a 75 mile long valley that is about 20 miles wide at it's widest point. We have over 1.5 million acres making up our county and only 355,000 are privately owned, t...Expand for more
he rest being USFS and State land. So more burned than is privately held. The fires lasted over six weeks, 72 homes were burned and hundreds of families were evacuated for most of those six weeks. My husband and I were evacuating livestock, pets and furnishings for several weeks as the fires grew, blew embers over a mile to start new fires and then join into massive firestorms. After the fires I was asked by our LT Gov. to run a program called "I Care A Ton" in which over 400 tons of hay and feed for livestock and evacuated pets was brought into our region of the state for distribution. I coordinated the movement of the feed from as far away of Indiana and Kentucky into Montana and then the deliveries to various ranchers and fire victims who lost anything from just their hay to everything they owned. I was hired by FEMA to manage the recovery for the next year. From this experience I came to know my community from one end to the other and to see first hand what bad forest management can do. Like hurricanes, floods, and oil spills, fire (as certainly CA knows) can destroy a way of life not only in the short term but in many cases recovery is sometimes 100 years in the making.
My newest challenge is that I was elected (Nov. 2010) County Commissioner. I am a very conservative Republican who has seen the results to rural America by well meaning people with no real concept of what is best for the mountain west yet they seemed determined to run our lives and control our future. We face constant threats of out of control wildfire due to the litigation keeping us from managing our forests for health and safety and now we have wolves literally in our front yards killing not just our livestock but our pets while our wildlife populations are being wiped out.
I still travel down to San Diego several times a year and my family makes regular trips north as well. My parents still live in the family home in Point Loma and my middle sister Kim has just retired from her position with the Alumni Assoc and lives in OB.
Littlest sister Stacey is also in San Diego and is very busy with her own business as well. Both have three children who are all off in college or in great careers.
My life has been rewarding beyond belief with a wonderful big family (Lee has 4 siblings all in Hamilton and they have big families as well), the greatest of friends and a life style that is literally my childhood dream come true. We have had our ups and downs of course, and the economy makes it challenging for everyone but overall I can honestly say life can't get much better than what I have been blessed with. I am a woman of faith and give God all of the glory for the blessings we have. My parents taught us that hard work and honesty in our dealings would keep us on tract for a good and fulfilling life and those lessons have served me well.
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