Susanne Steinem Patch (February 19, 1925 – November 2, 2007) was an American gem expert and staff lawyer at the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

Early life

Susanne Steinem was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, the daughter of Leo Steinem and Ruth Nuneviller Steinem. Her paternal grandmother,

Pauline Perlmutter Steinem Pauline Perlmutter Steinem (August 4, 1864 — January 5, 1940) was a Jewish American suffragist born in Poland. In 1904, she became the first woman to be elected to the Board of Education in Toledo, Ohio, as well as to any public office there, ...

, was a suffragist and activist for vocational education in Toledo.Patricia Sullivan
"Susanne Steinem Patch, 82; Gem Expert"
''Washington Post'' (November 7, 2007). After their parents' divorce and their mother's health issues, Susanne was an important support for her younger sister,

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in ...

. Susanne Steinem attended

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, earning an undergraduate degree in 1946. At age 50, after raising six children, she returned to school, earning her law degree from

Antioch School of Law Antioch School of Law was a law school in Washington, D.C. which specialized in public advocacy. The school now operates as the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC-DCSL). The school was located on 16th Street ...

in 1978.

Career

While in college, Susanne Steinem worked at a jewelry store, and became fascinated by gems. She learned the industry working as buyer in New York and

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

She taught

gemology Gemology or gemmology is the science dealing with natural and artificial gemstone materials. It is a geoscience and a branch of mineralogy. Some jewelers (and many non-jewelers) are academically trained gemologists and are qualified to identify a ...

classes and hosted a local television show on the subject. In the 1970s she served as a docent at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's Hall of Gems and Minerals and Hall of Physical Geology in the 1970s. Patch wrote a book, ''Blue Mystery: The Story of the

Hope Diamond The Hope Diamond is a diamond originally extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in Guntur, India. It is blue in color due to trace amounts of boron. Its exceptional size has revealed new information about the formation of diamonds. ...

'' (1976), and was a technical consultant on the subject for various documentaries and exhibits. After becoming a lawyer, Patch was a staff attorney at the Federal Trade Commission and was assigned to the Bureau of Consumer Protection from 1980 to 1994, where she oversaw regulations on jewelry, watches, and metallic watchbands. She was a member of the

Maryland State Bar Association The Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of Maryland. The association pursues the following mission: "to effectively represent Maryland’s lawyers, to provide member services, and to promote profes ...

, the American Society of Jewelry Historians, the Mineralogical Society in Washington, and many other organizations.

Personal life

Susanne Steinem married a patent attorney, Robert J. Patch, in 1954. The Patches had six children together, and cared for her mother Ruth Steinem, in their

Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place (Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland) that straddle the northwest border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Several settlements in th ...

home. She was co-founder of her neighborhood food co-op in 1974, and remained active there through the 1980s. She was also engaged in school issues in

Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous county in the state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat and largest municipality is Rockville, although the census-design ...

. Susanne Steinem Patch died in 2007, aged 82 years, in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

, after a stroke."Susanne Steinem Patch"
''Leland Street News'' (November 4, 2007).

References

External links

*
A 1984 photograph of Susanne Steinem Patch and Gloria Steinem
at the latter's 50th birthday party, in the collection of Getty Images. {{DEFAULTSORT:Patch, Susanne Steinem 1925 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American lawyers American people of German-Jewish descent American people of Polish-Jewish descent People from Toledo, Ohio People from Chevy Chase, Maryland Smith College alumni