Sept. 11, 1942 – Sept. 22, 2025
When Susan Carrel was nominated for New York State Teacher of the Year, the letters of recommendation included one from two Buffalo News reporters.
“She’s loving but demanding, fun but tough,” they wrote. “Her classroom becomes a connection to the vast world of knowledge, information and thinking skills that lurk outside textbooks and teacher lectures … She almost squeals with delight when the kids’ eyes light up at some newly-learned skill.”
They had seen her in action in the late 1990s, when she welcomed a small group of News staffers to her classroom 15 to 20 times a year for three years. As part of The News’ Adopt-a-School initiative, editors and reporters helped her teach fifth-graders how to read – and write – a newspaper.
Together, the class produced three small separate newspapers, one titled “The Bookworm Gazette,” and at least three centerfold stories for The News’ former neXt section for kids. One of those stories presented awards for the fifth-graders’ favorite and least favorite TV commercials. They called them the Carrels.
A former student attending Harvard University added another testimonial: “She has an affectionate spirit that radiates from her and fills the room. She finds the best in all of her students. She peers into their minds and understands their feelings.”
Retired since 2003, she died Sept. 22 after a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 83.
Born Susan Iris Silverman in Buffalo, she was the older of two daughters of Alfred and Ann Horwitz Silverman. Her father headed the state attorney general’s Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection in Buffalo.
She attended School 66 and graduated seventh in her class in 1960 at Bennett High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society. At Buffalo State Teachers College, she also was seventh in her class and a member of Kappa Delta Pi, the honorary society in education.
After she received her bachelor’s degree, she was married in June 1964 to her high school sweetheart, Alan S. Carrel, whom she met when they volunteered in the principal’s office as sophomores.
She taught as a substitute when her children started school, then full-time in Kenmore before beginning more than 20 years with fourth- and fifth-grade classes in Buffalo’s Olmsted Schools, first at School 56, then School 67.
She was a literacy volunteer at School 76 and helped create a set of lesson plans in peer mediation and conflict resolution that were used by numerous organizations.
She taught Sunday school and Jewish cooking for many years at Temple Beth Zion and served on the boards of the temple’s Sisterhood and Young Women’s Group. She also was a board member of the Bureau of Jewish Education, Kadimah School, the Camp Lakeland Association, the American Jewish Committee and the Buffalo Jewish Federation.
Devoted to her family, she was an avid volleyball player and recreational walker.
In addition to her husband, an attorney and retired vice dean at the University at Buffalo Law School, survivors include her daughter, Andrea Czerwinski; two sons, Michael and Steven Carrel; her sister, Bette Davidson, and seven grandchildren.
A funeral service was held Sept. 25 in Temple Beth Zion, 805 Delaware Ave.
Email danderson@buffnews.com.
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Dale Anderson
Reporter
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