Beloved Community Leader Dr. Sue Tomita Passes Away
Dr. Sue Tomita, one of the co-founders of Asian Counseling and Referral Service, activist and dedicated advocate for Asian American Pacific Islander communities, passed away on May 10 of pancreatic cancer. She was 74 years old.
An esteemed AAPI and women’s health researcher, Tomita earned a PhD in social work from the University of Washington and helped found multiple health groups supporting AAPI communities, including Asian Community Health Clinic, Filipino Drop-in Center, and the Asian Social Workers of Greater Seattle.
Tomita was one of the first therapists in Seattle who provided ethnic-specific mental health care for Asian Americans in the 1970s. Her work helped Harborview Medical Center grow from a mono-cultural, Caucasian-based system to a multicultural system, and her early outreach efforts to Asian Americans in need led to the creation of ACRS – a story she shared in ACRS’ anniversary videos and with the IE.
Hypothesizing that Asians might seek mental health counseling if services were located in their own community, Dr. Lindbergh Sata (then CEO of Harborview Community Mental Health Center) instructed me to look for a place to do outreach work. The board of Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church very quickly approved of the use of one classroom one evening a week for free counseling services to Asians. One day, Dr. Sata and I went to the church to look over the setting at the classroom and to examine its adequacy. We were thrilled that it was a site that was rent-free, clean, and safe. On our way out, he took out a $20 bill and handed it to me, and said, “Buy some green tea…serve tea to the clients.” He was already thinking of how to comfort in a culturally appropriate manner someone who might be quite uncomfortable about seeking mental health care.
I went around the community to advertise this free service, and every Tuesday evening I made tea. No one came for many weeks, until one day, a woman came in and asked, “Is there really free counseling here?” She did not know what a gift she was to us. It did not matter that we were sitting in a classroom at a child’s desk, sitting in children’s chairs. We had a good talk. She became the first of a group of clients that our core group of volunteer counselors assisted during the first years.
During her regular volunteer time in the basement at Blaine, Tomita continued to meet and talk with clients over tea and would later serve as coordinator for other therapists who volunteered their time to meet with them.
“It was her leadership in the early days when we were at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church that laid the foundation for ACRS’s decades of service. She played several roles in those days ranging from therapist and volunteer coordinator to site manager. Sue was truly dedicated to the clients and she routinely made a point of brewing tea for them. She was truly our first director,” recalls Dave Okimoto, former ACRS executive director 1976-1985.
She continued to support ACRS throughout her life and most recently was an active member of the Friends of ACRS. We honor and remember Tomita’s legacy, energy, and enthusiasm, which continues to live on in the current ACRS volunteers and staff.
“While I’ve only known her for a brief time during my limited tenure here at ACRS, her kindness and generosity were well demonstrated and mentioned by others who were connected to the organization. We will miss Sue and what she represented, and we send our deepest condolences to her partner Gregory and their family,” said Michael Byun, ACRS Executive Director.
She is survived by her loving and devoted partner Gregory Piercy; son Jason Rabbitt-Tomita (Mizuho Goto) and their children Maximilian and Julian; brothers Neal Tomita (Cheryl Lippman), and Alan Tomita (Joyce); step-daughters Tamera Brockway, Jennifer Barda and Justine Barda; nieces and nephews Blaine Tomita, Karine De Lima, Mandy Yamamoto, and Rylan Tomita.
A memorial is pending due to Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home mandate. You can share your condolences with her family here.
