Obituary: Elinor Scott-Sutter inspired thousands with return to Boston Marathon

When Elinor Scott-Sutter qualified to run in the Boston Marathon in 2013, it was a dream come true.

But then two bombs exploded when she was about a mile from the finish line, and the race came to an abrupt end.

A year later, Scott-Sutter achieved her goal. She had been diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in January but received special permission to return to Boston and walk the final mile at the 2014 marathon in April.

It was, said her sister Jodi Scott, "her unfinished business," and Elinor's tenacity received national attention and inspired thousands who counter disease and pain with hope and optimism.

The St. Louis Park mother, teacher, artist and marathoner died Sept. 12. She was 51.

"Everyone knows her for her running, but her photography and her poetry were just phenomenal," said Scott. "She was a very tenacious and strong person, independent and capable, and she had this ability to help others on a really deep level."

Scott-Sutter was born in Sioux Falls, S.D., majored in French at the University of South Alabama and received a master's degree in education at the University of Minnesota.

She taught French at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School in Minnetonka and technology at Wayzata High School. She then taught herself additional computer skills to become a network engineer.

"If she was going to do something, she was going to do it 110 percent and put her whole heart into it and do it well," said Scott.

Scott-Sutter married photographer Buck Sutter in 1986.

He said that Elinor was a wonderful writer, and she quickly embraced the earliest forms of social media to communicate with others. "Being an artist, photographer and person who loves music, she was connected to all these different communities," Sutter said. "Her ability to communicate and express herself so well made people feel like they knew her, and she has a circle of friends here and in Europe and all over."

Sutter said that for several years his wife became passionate about Polaroid photography just as the technology was being phased out. But she experimented with the film artistically, he said, and became well-known for some of her work.

During another period she became extremely excited about orchids, Sutter said. "She started collecting them, learned the botanical names, went to orchid society meetings, got hybrids, started raising them and turned our apartment at the time into a greenhouse," he said. "She would totally dive into things and get her teeth into them, not just like a dilettante."

That enthusiasm extended to endurance running, said Sutter, which his wife took up in 2009. Within six months she entered her first marathon, he said, the first of about 10 that she completed in the next four years.

Cathi Scott of Plymouth said that her sister was a lifelong teacher and learner, and someone who attracted people because of her kind, compassionate and gentle demeanor.

"Even in the hospital where she could barely speak anymore, a nurse came in and said she had run 9 miles," Scott said. "Elinor gave her a big thumbs-up."

Those who knew Elinor understood the determination beneath her gentle nature, Scott said. "She went at everything at full force. Just being mediocre was not part of who she was. She was exactly the opposite."

In addition to her sisters and husband, Scott-Sutter is survived by her mother, Donna, and four children: sons Andrew, Henry and Edward, and daughter Martha.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday with a visitation at 10 a.m., at the Church of Our Lady of Grace, 5071 Eden Av. S., Edina.