Susan (Maclay) Blackman, age 77, of Arlington, Va., passed away there on Feb. 18, 2020.

Susan was born in Washington, D.C., to John A. Maclay, Jr., and Ruth Anderson Maclay on July 1, 1942. She went to school in Dubuque, Iowa, and then to college at Luther College in Decorah, where she later served on the Board of Regents for 14 years. She married Paul H. Blackman, whom she met when they were both graduate students at the University of Virginia, on August 11, 1971.

After doing her doctoral work in foreign affairs, she worked for 30 years in the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Commerce Department, working on most of the developing world at one time or another, and earning Bronze and Silver medals. In response to the oil boom in the Middle East, she helped organize the Commerce Action Group for the Near East, and in response to the fall of the Soviet Union, and the opening of trade with former Warsaw Pact nations, the Bureau of East-West Trade which was the group that dealt with the former Soviet Union countries. She retired from the Commerce Department in 1998.

In the 1970s, while living on Capitol Hill, she joined the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, and was active in its choir for three decades, after which she helped recruit worship leaders for Sunday services.

Susan was preceded in death by her father, in 1944, her brother John in 1995, and her mother in 2013.

Susan is survived by her husband, her sisters-in-law Ellen and Beth Blackman, and her godson Christopher Meckstroth.

Memorials may be given to Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, IA 52101, for the Susan Maclay Blackman Fellowship for Study Abroad, or to the Hebrew Free Loan, 131 Steuart St., Suite 520, San Francisco, CA 94105, for the Paul & Susan Blackman Fund. The family wishes to extend its sincere thanks to Dr. Kathryn Dreger, a tireless and devoted primary care physician, who went out of her way to recruit the best of specialists for her numerous health problems.

Burial was Feb. 25, 2020, at the National Memorial Park, with the Rev. Michael Wilker of the Church of the Reformation officiating. Arrangements were by the National Funeral Home.