Susan Mintzer of Montauk and New York City was a psychoanalyst in private practice and, with her husband, Michael Mintzer, traveled the country and the world despite having a rare neuromuscular disorder.
Dr. Mintzer, who was diagnosed with Type 2 myotonic dystrophy seven years ago, died on Jan. 18 at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Hospital in the city, of sepsis consequent to pneumonia. She was 80 years old.
Her husband said they had enjoyed 45 “magical years” of marriage, beginning on July 2, 1978. Together they took long hikes on extended summertime days in the Canadian Rockies, walked through a tarantula burrow in Trinidad, and watched chunks of ice falling into Glacier Bay, Alaska. They also visited the Galapagos Islands and Australia, and Russia, Portugal, and Thailand, and, finally, this past summer, Bermuda.
On trips between their Manhattan apartment and Montauk house, Dr. Mintzer would read British Victorian novels aloud to her husband. Both the houses were beautifully decorated thanks to her smart sense of aesthetics, her husband said.
Susan Henda Segerman was born in Jacksonville, N.C., on Oct. 2, 1942, to Julius J. Segerman and the former Rozzie Leder. She graduated from high school there and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina in 1964. She completed a master’s in New York at the City College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1979, and another at New York University in 1981. Her doctorate was awarded by N.Y.U.’s School of Social Work in 2002. Dr. Henry Kellerman, a noted psychologist, mentored her as she completed her dissertation, on treatment methods for battered women.
From 2005 through 2007, Dr. Mintzer served as president of the Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Society and Institute of New York City.
In addition to her private practice and extensive travels, she loved dining out and attending concerts, ballets, movies, and shows, and took classes with the modern dance pioneer Martha Graham.
In addition to her husband, Dr. Mintzer leaves a daughter, Dina Fried of New York City, and two grandchildren, Annalise Fried and Alexandra Fried. A brother, Dr. Stuart Segerman of Atlanta, and a sister, Sharon Segerman of Chevy Chase, Md., survive as well.
Funeral services were held on Jan. 22 at Manhattan’s Riverside Memorial Chapel, Rabbi Isaac Baumgarten officiating. Burial followed at Old Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield Gardens, Queens.
