I wanted to posthumously add this to our FBC site on behalf of Sue, as the Lord Jesus Christ was
always greatly relevant in her life. The Lord reminded me continuously on the night of her
passing, absent from the body and present with the Lord. The following is the tribute I wrote for
Sue and presented at the Celebration of Life service held on January 18th, 2025, at Fairport
Baptist Church.

Sue Pritchett Harper - A life well lived, an Angel walking among us

My daughter Leighanne provided some of Sue’s earlier background. Many of you only knowing
Sue for a short time, I wanted to share more about her life. As Leighanne stated as child Sue
loved her Granny Pritchett who was instrumental in bringing Sue to becoming a believer in Jesus
at a young age. It was in honor of her grandmother that Sue knew years before that she also
wanted to be known as Granny for her grandchildren.

Sue graduated from Spotsylvania High School in 1978 and immediately went to work for the
Department of Agriculture in DC. In 1980, with help from a fellow church member at Goshen
Baptist she was able to secure a position with the FBI in Quantico, where she became the
administrative specialist for a group of agents.

The year 1982 was an important year, Sue had just met a commercial fisherman from the
Northern Neck named John Harper, who was exploring meeting people in the Fredericksburg
area. It did not take long for me to realize that Sue was special, and I proposed to her in
February of 1982, we were married on October 2nd, 1982, at Goshen Baptist Church in
Spotsylvania, VA. We even had her whole group of 8 FBI agents in attendance. During 1982 I
also left behind the water life and completed training at a technical school.

In 1984, Sue and I were able to purchase a new home in Garrisonville of Stafford, VA, this would
be convenient to Quantico for Sue and within commuting distance for me. That year we also
joined Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Stafford and became involved there.

In 1987 our first lovely child is born, Lauren Ashleigh Harper. Sue took maternity leave and
planned to return to her career, but after discussions and by the blessing of the Lord it was
determined that Sue should resign from the FBI and spend her time at home with Lauren in the
job of motherhood. Then in 1991 our second lovely child is born, Leighanne Shelbie Harper.

With the growing family we needed an expansion of housing, so in the spring of 1993, we sold
our first home to purchase our second a short distance away that would allow us to grow our
family. This home remained the family home until it was time to leave Stafford.

In 1995 our third and last lovely child was born, Jonathan Ashby Harper. Early in the pregnancy
the doctors were a little concerned with some lab work and suggested additional lab work to be
done. At that point we had deacons come to our home one evening and they anointed Sue with
oil and prayed over us. Additional lab work confirmed everything was OK.

Then at about 7 months Sue started having early labor and we had several hospital visits over
the next few weeks. The last of these visits to Prince William Hospital turned into an ordeal. The
doctors had Sue on bed rest with some drugs to stop the contractions which seemed to be
working at the moment. Sue’s brother Ricky was also there, which allowed me to return to
Stafford to get a few items taken care of. As I was getting ready to drive away from the hospital,
I prayed that all would be well, in my prayer I remembered in scripture that Jesus said if we pray
with faith the size of a mustard seed and that He hears our prayers, and I said that I had that
faith that God would be with us. Upon driving away, about 30 seconds later on the radio the
host was talking about faith the size of a mustard seed, at that moment I was assured that
everything would be fine.

Ricky paged me a little later that I needed to return to the hospital as complications were
arising. When I got back to the hospital, I found that the doctors were frantic as Sue’s lungs
were filling with fluid and she was suffering from pulmonary edema. I still felt assured that all
would be well, however Sue was air lifted to INOVA hospital in Fairfax and taken to intensive
care with procedures to relieve the fluid in her lungs. While there in intensive care Sue’s water
broke so she was rushed to delivery where they determined that Jonathan was breached so
now they were scrambling on the need for a C-Section. I was out in the hallway with smiles due
to God’s assurance when I heard calls for me to be rushed into the room as before they could
start any procedures Jonathan decided to back his way out, and by being a preemie he was
successful and appeared good condition. Sue was returned to ICU and Jonathan to the Neonatal
unit where he would reside for a few weeks. Sue recovered from the pulmonary edema, but it
left her heart very weak for a while, and it took months to recover her strength. God is Good.
Years later I told one of our bible study groups this story about how it was almost comical with
all of the frantic doctors involved when I already knew everything would be good. Sue got mad
at me because there was nothing comical about it as she said because she thought that she was
going to die. So now is the second time that I am able to recount these events to others.

After Jonathan was born and Sue was well again, she began working as a teacher within the
Mount Ararat weekday morning preschool. Jonathan also attended and Lauren and Leighanne
were enrolled in the local schools during the day. Sue’s preschool class was named the Busy
Bees and Sue was always creating arts and craft projects at home as teaching aids. Her name for
the kids in her class was Miss Sue. Sometimes I would say hey Miss Sue, which would be met
with a shrug and a rolling of her eyes knowing that I wanted something from her.

In 1998, after 15 years of commuting all over the Metro DC area due to my career in computer
field services, I had the opportunity brought about by contacts at our church to start working at
Quantico with the FBI which reduced my commuting time by several hours a day. In 2003 I went
from contractor role to becoming a federal employee. To bring the circle back around, as the
girls were in college and Jonathan was in high school, in 2009 another church and bible study
friend of ours that was a manager in Quantico had some administrative position openings that
could be directly hired and wanted to know if Sue would be interested. Sue prepared her
resume and was hired pending making it through the onboarding process. Part of the process is
passing a polygraph, everyone told Sue how awful that process is including myself, for I had a
headache for several days afterwards from mine. I took Sue up to DC to the office one morning
for Sue to complete her polygraph, a half hour later she returns from the office and states that
the experience was not that bad. I quipped, “yeah everyone would love to have your
conscience”

Sue excelled at her position and had risen to the top of her career line when she retired in 2022.
This also explains how Sue had a 20-year federal career with her 22 years of maternity leave in
the middle as I like to call it. She was loved by everyone at work, and everyone knew how
important her family and especially the grandchildren were to her from the sheer number of
photos all over her office.

All of our children were raised in a Christian home and within Mount Ararat Baptist Church
where they were involved with youth activities and events that were numerous. Sue was always
involved with these also.

Sue was blessed to be able to be involved with the wedding of each of the children, she and I
were so proud of all of them as each had excelled in their move to adulthood and for each
choosing a wonderful spouse. Then she also was at the birth of each of the grandchildren, first
Emma, then Clark, then Annie, and lastly Caroline. As in every other paragraph, Sue adored her
grandchildren and her role as Granny.

Sue really enjoyed having a family vacation at the ocean and beaches each year, which we were
able to improve on, especially during the last decade and a half as the kids were grown and
finances got better. In those early years it was just Sue, myself, and the kids, then in some years
fiancés were added, followed by years where fiancés became spouses, finally a number of years
that also included Sue’s favorites, the grandchildren. Sue will want this tradition to continue
even as it will never be the same without her, we know she will be with us in spirit.

Sue and I had the opportunity to prepare for retirement for a number of years, knowing the
children would not be staying in Stafford, we both wanted to retire somewhere else that would
be more enjoyable. I still loved the water and being on a boat, so somewhere close to water
would factor into the decision. We spent several years visiting areas in the Carolinas and in
Virginia. I was always keeping an open eye in the real estate market for the right place that met
our criteria, in 2016 that home was purchased in Reedville VA. The home was livable but could
use some updates. From 2016 until retirements most weekends were spent at the River House
as it is known by us, however people in Stafford had a hard time with that and continually called
it the lake house. For the most part all of the improvements that we desired have been
completed. Sue liked to watch the home renovation programs on TV and was always thinking of
improvements that we could make (I would see her watching those shows and just shrugged).
Most improvements were performed by Sue and I working hard together side by side to
complete them, if you ever visit and want to know more, I can take you through them all.

The River House became the official residence in 2021 as the Stafford house was sold that
summer. We rented an apartment in Stafford for the following two years for weekday stays to
bridge the gap to retirements. Sue officially retired from the FBI in December of 2022, and I
followed in January of 2024. Our kids and grandkids would come for stays which we always
enjoyed and looked forward to. We found it was a blessing to just sit outside and enjoy the
natural setting all around, Sue and I would spend a lot of time sitting in one of several locations
around the property with a cup of coffee and enjoy the moments while planning our next
project. Sometimes we would just take the boat out to the bay and drift around just to enjoy
our coffee and the beauty of life. I plan to continue having cups of coffee in these locations
while knowing Sue’s spirit is joining me.

Scripture verses

Galatians 5 22 -23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no
record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails

Sue had more of all of the above of these virtues than anyone else that I have ever known. I
truly believe she was an angel waking among us in human form.

I addition to all of those qualities she was also very intelligent, witty, dedicated, organized,
efficient, and most of all giving.

Sue did not like clutter, or anything of hers being unkept. This was good as there was never any
pressure to quickly straighten the home up if someone was coming by for any reason because
she always kept it clean and ready. Additionally, Sue never wanted anything that used paint to
dry for too long, as she always had something that was in need of a fresh coat of paint. I know
3M’s bottom line will be hurt without all of the blue painter’s tape that she used.

My wife Sue passed away unexpectedly during the evening of December 21st, 2024, and I miss
her so very much. Earlier in the day she was putting the finishing touches on her Christmas
cards and gifts for the family. Several hours before she passed, she joined a group from this
church to go caroling to the homes of other senior members of the church.

At her funeral before closing the casket I gave her a kiss on her forehead and thanked her and
Jesus for the blessing of the 42 plus years that we had together. Sue taught me what real love,
faithfulness, and giving was in this world. Without her influence I would be a shadow of the
person I am today.

I was blessed that I was able to take her back home to Fredericksburg where she was able to be
interned close to her parents and her sister, family was always so important to her. She visited
their graves as often as she could. As God works, I just hoped there was some spot for her in
this large cemetery that we could get, once I was told there was a single space right near her
parents, I knew where she should be.

I will tell you that the family and I have a large hole in our heart for the plans, experiences, and
shared moments we had hoped for with Sue in years to come. I am sure Sue wanted many
more years with her grandchildren as they were her greatest joy.

However, we are confident and without doubt that Sue has moved on to Heaven to be with her
Lord and Savior Jesus, so we are blessed with that. We miss her so much, yet our faith remains
strong, and we are counting on that to move us forward. Thank you for your prayers and kind
expressions of sympathy.

The next song is for me as I have had to lean into so much lately