Peter Calusic and Susan Northwall met on June 28, 1976, the beginning of their first year in the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery (now DMU) at a reception hosted by then-President Leonard Azneer.
“We then had the same cadaver in anatomy class,” says Peter, D.O.’79. “You really get to know someone when you share a cadaver.”
The two married in 1977, graduated in 1979 and practiced family medicine together in southeast Pennsylvania for the next two decades. Susan also served as a family practice residency trainer for Lancaster Osteopathic Hospital and as medical director at Millersville University in Millersville, PA.
“Not only was she a very competent physician, she also was a kind, loving person who could reach out to any patient regardless of their socio-economic status, education, age or gender,” Peter says. “Her patients loved her.”
Sadly, Susan died of breast cancer in 2017, but her legacy lives on in the Susan N. Calusic, D.O., Endowed Fund, which Peter established to generate scholarships for DMU osteopathic medical students who intend to specialize in family medicine.
“Her memory lives on in my family’s hearts. Now, I’m happy to say, this endowed fund in her name will assist on a yearly basis a deserving new osteopathic medical physician entering primary care,” Peter says. “I know she’s smiling from heaven.”
