WATERTOWN — Susan Lind-Sinanian passed away peacefully on April 5, 2025 at Mt. Auburn Hospital.
Susan Marie Sinanian was born in Boston on November 3, 1948 to the late Harry Sinanian and Margaret (Samour) Sinanian, and was the sister of Janet Rae-Sinanian, Marilyn Sinanian Stuart, and Paul Sinanian.
Susan was a graduate of Boston Girl’s Latin School, Northeastern University and Boston College, with a BS in elementary education and an master’s in education of the visually impaired. She worked as a house mother at the Perkin’s School for the Blind while a student at Northeastern and upon graduation, joined the staff at Perkins, teaching Daily Living Skills at the Keller-Sullivan Building for 42 years, guiding generations of blind students.
Teaching was one of her greatest loves. The other was embracing and sharing her Armenian heritage.
Susan was a noted expert in traditional Armenian folk arts and lectured and taught workshops on Armenian village dances, folk embroideries and costumes, and cooking at camps throughout the United States and in Europe and Asia. She learned these arts through interviews with survivors of the Armenian Genocide. Susan also served as the Textile Curator/Conservator of the Armenian Museum of America, where in 1986 she created the textile center to oversee the largest Armenian textile collection in the diaspora. She created numerous exhibitions on costumes, laces, embroideries, and carpets, both at the Armenian Museum and off-site.
She assisted Ron Marchese and Marlene Breu at the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul, advising the conservation and preparation of historic vestments for a new museum there, and advised in the creation of a museum in Shushi, Artsakh.
