Suzuko Hara, February 11, 1929 – January 20, 2024
Beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and
humble and faithful servant of Jesus Christ.
Suzuko Hara, age 94, died at Mountainside Hospital in
Montclair, NJ on Saturday, January 20, 2024 from
complications due to COVID-19.
She was born on February 11, 1929 in Tokyo, Japan to Fumio
and Hanako Tsukada. She had a sister, Kyoko Prieto (Andrew)
and a brother, Kazuo Tsukada, both of whom predeceased her.
Her paternal grandfather was the renowned calligrapher, Niwa
Kaikaku.

Mrs. Hara attended The Friends School and Keisen Jogakuen, both Christian girls schools
in Tokyo, Japan. She met her husband, Tadao Hara, at Tamagawa University and they
married on May 12, 1951. Mrs. Hara received her B.A. from Northwest University in
Kirkland, WA.
Her husband, Tadao, had a long career as an educator and Christian minister. Like many
women of her generation, much of her energy was devoted to supporting her husband's
work. For a brief time, while her husband was a televangelist in Japan, Suzuko was a
radio evangelist. She taught Sunday School and English, organized fellowship activities,
raised two children and was a staff member in the K-9 school that she and her husband
founded in Southern California for Japanese expatriate children in 1978. When her
husband was hired to provide Japanese translation and dubbing for a well-known
American televangelist, Suzuko acted as director during their recording sessions as well
as providing the voice of the televangelist's wife. Well into their 80s, Suzuko and Tadao
led the Japanese language congregation at the Mesa Verde United Methodist Church in
Costa Mesa, CA. Tremendously creative, Suzuko was an accomplished watercolor artist,
seamstress and cook.
For the past 20 years, Mrs. Hara summered at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New
York and delighted in the musical programming and ecumenical Sunday church services
offered there. She relocated to Montclair in 2017 after spending most of her life between
the environs of Tokyo and Southern California.
Mrs. Hara is survived by son Nobumichi Hara (Jane Marie) of Phoenix, AZ, daughter
Izumi Hara (David N. Koschik) of Montclair, NJ, seven grandchildren: Naomi (Jason
Hohn), Hitomi (Curtis Mewhinney), Eimi (Jonathan Flores), Yoshinobu Hara (Anushree)
and Caroline, Eleanor and Abigail Koschik and eleven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service celebrating her life will be held Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 11:00
a.m., at Union Congregational Church, 176 Cooper Avenue, Montclair, NJ. 07043.