Suezette Rene Bieri

Suezette's Service can be watch live on First Presbyterian Church Facebook Page.

To watch a recording of the service, please use the link: https://youtu.be/eulZqgMxXBk 

Suezette Rene Bieri -- The Space Lady -- died at 16 minutes past midnight on May 2, 2026, at the Edgewood Memory Unit in Grand Forks She was 79 years old.

The Space Lady relished her role at UND's Space Studies Department, which involved funneling federal money to students, schools and colleges and -- more fun than that -- helping young people understand space and even build rockets. It also led her to meet astronauts and other space geeks around the country. She loved her job.

Suezette was born March 7, 1947, in Minot, N.D., the daughter of John and Ruthanne Bieri. She grew up on her family's ranch at Blaisdell. She went through the eighth grade at the school there. She went to high school in Stanley, N.D., where she and a kid named Mike Jacobs often got into arguments.

She graduated from UND not once but three times, first with a major in sociology and later with a master's degree in counseling and guidance. She worked in Grand Forks, then moved to Dickinson where she married that kid named Mike. They stuck it out together for more than 54 years. She and the kid lived initially in Dickinson, N.D., then in Jamestown and Bismarck, following that nuisance kid's career in journalism.

In 1980, Suezette and the kid moved back to Grand Forks. Initially she worked as a student counsellor at the University of Minnesota in Crookston. There were three drawbacks to this job -- the distance, the snow drifting across U.S. Highway 2 and the troubled students, some of whom didn't want to shape up.

So... Suezette signed up as one of the first students in UND's Space Studies Department, where she earned another master's degree. That job opened a whole new world. Or a window to the universe. She taught introductory courses and then became director of the Space Grant Program at UND. In the first role, she got some future astronauts started and in the second she alerted students to what's going on out there -- WAY OUT THERE...

She loved that great job. In 2024, UND honored both Suezette and the kid with the Alumni Achievement Award, aka "The Sioux Award." By the way: She and the kid renewed their rural roots after the Red River Flood of 1997 when they had a house built west of Gilby, N.D.Gilby, a closeknit and comfortable community. The move relieved religious tensions. How? Gilby may be the only town in North Dakota with neither a Catholic nor a Lutheran church. Suezette and Mike didn't have children -- and so they fostered cats --17 of them in their 55-year marriage. Three of them are still living with the kid.

Survivors are her husband, Mike Jacobs, her sister Becky Blessum, who lives in Grand Forks, and her brother, Jody Bieri, of Sidney Mont. Other survivors are nieces, Sara Blessum of Las Vegas, Nev., and her partner Eric Kline; Ann Mason her husband, Daxon and their children Jace, Brecken and Hattie, all of Grand Forks; and Beth Eider of Minneapolis and her husband Jake Eider and their boys Henrik and Emmett.

Visitation will be held from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Monday, May 11, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church, Grand Forks, ND. Celebration of Life will be held at 2:00 p.m. Monday, May 11, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church, Grand Forks, ND. A cookie buffet will follow.