It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Buster Sussman has left us.
Buster was a fixture at the Los Angeles Press Club and a member since 1948! He greeted many of us with his cheerful “Congratulations, congratulations — you are doing a fantastic job.”
Buster was born in San Francisco on April 16, 1927, and later moved to Los Angeles with his family. He landed reporter jobs on a string of newspapers, among them Los Angeles Times. In the 1970s, he was a director of the press club’s educational foundation.
For the last 20 years, he attended most of the club’s events until an unfortunate fall last year left him wheelchair-bound. He still kept in touch via phone, eager to hear about any news concerning the press club and to suggest future programs.
He will be missed.
Thank you so much for the lovely notice of Buster’s passing! A lavish life, and he is missed,.
It has been a deep sense of loss for myself as well as members of the Filipino American Press Club of Los Angeles (Est 1078) to hear our friend Buster Sussman has passed. Buster had been a major presence in our community’s press club since he met our then club president at the Greater LA Press Club at Vemont and Clinton in 1984. Since then Buster had been a regular member, then member of the board of directors. Buster was involved in all club activities even after his retirement from the LA Times. He was most active in the continuing education program for our community press practitioners He had shown that he cared for our press club and our Filipino American community, and in return he had always been much respected and well-loved by club members as well as by many Filipino Americans in Los Angeles he had met through the years.
To Sharon, her daughter, I wish to extend our deepest condolences. Yes, your father will be missed and the memories he left with us will be cherished so fondly. My biggest regret is I never got to tell him: “Congratulations Buster ! You have done a fantastic job !”
Sincerely,
Dante Ochoa
Co-Founding Member
Secretary of the Board, FAPCLA (1978)
I am so happy to have met him and so sorry to hear of his passing. He will be sorely missed.