Blog

Meet the Members: Susan and G. “Doc” DeAndrea 

I am from Far Hills, New Jersey. I have loved Porsches since childhood at the New York Auto Show and watching the 917s with Gulf livery at Watkins Glen Can-Am. I am a Hoya, spending 11 years at Georgetown University – undergrad, Medical School & Neurology residency, and a Husky, 4 years at University of Washington Seattle, Neurophysiology Fellowship & MBA. Susan is from a large family in Oklahoma, where she graduated from Central State University with a Business degree. 

We met in Seattle with a weekly ski group. We married / honeymooned in Tasmania at the end of the 1993 Sydney-Hobart yacht race. In Seattle, Susan ran my private medical office. We had huskies Panama Red & Nanda Devi, we hiked, sailed, remodeled houses and landscaped. When we grew tired of grey skies, on a motorcycle Laughlin River Run from Seattle, I discovered Medford OR. We moved there briefly in 2012, where we joined the PCA, Oregon Region, Cascade Chapter, a social group mainly for dining and cruising between wineries. 

We moved to Las Vegas in 2014 where I work fulltime as a Vascular Neurohospitalist at Sunrise Comprehensive Stroke Center. Susan works with EXP realtor MJ Blunk and manages our investment property & finances. We live in Saddle Peak, Nevada Trails, not far from Gaudin Porsche. We look forward to LVR social gatherings, especially monthly brunches when work permits. I enjoy the DE at Spring Mountain, Pahrump. The Porsche Club trip to Zion and Cedar City in October 2020 was memorable, particularly going off-road in the Cayenne, led by the Washington’s, amongst the aspen groves and sheep drive. We enjoy watching F1 and IMSA. We met the winning Porsche factory teams at COTA, Austin, TX 2016. WE like basic wrenching on our cars, but leave the harder stuff to the pros. We enjoy music, especially this past season of Beethoven’s symphonies with the Las Vegas Philharmonic at the Smith Center. We like art, particularly Asian / Oriental, including vases. We look forward to playing Mahjong with friends and club members. We seek annual pilgrimage to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cedar City and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, near Medford where we keep a second home.  

My first car was a 1967 Austin Healey Sprite. One of our favorite non Porsche cars was a 1991 black on tan Mazda Miata with BBS wheels, on which Susan learned to drive manual. On the next Miata, a 1997 British racing green, I rebuilt the brake calipers, installed SPEC Miata coil over suspension, a roll-bar and Toyo Proxes RA1 tires. Tracking this was so much fun at Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA, where the film The Art of Racing in the Rain was centered and Oregon Raceway Park, Grass Valley, OR.

A 2006 Harley Davidson VRSCD Night Rod was the first “Porsche”, a liquid cooled V twin designed by Porsche Consulting. PCA told me that I would have to get 4 wheels to join the club. At least I won money drag racing it in Woodburn, OR.  On neighborhood walks with our huskies in Kenmore, WA, I saw a Guards Red 1984 944 2.5L in line 4, overtaken by weeds on a front lawn and threatened to buy it the next time Susan went out of town. While she was at her family reunion, I did buy that car and resuscitated it. 

Next came Bianca, a 1999 996 C2 911 manual, found in Grants Pass, OR. Bianca eventually found a new home with MJ and Harold Blunk, who have since joined the PCA family, and MJ has graciously awarded us visitation rights. This made room for a 2009 997.2 manual with cocoa brown leather, so aptly named Koko, after the legendary Chicago blues woman, Koko Taylor. In the interval, we acquired Bella, a 2016 Boxster S, a 2010 Panamera S 4.5L V8 & Bertha, a 2016 Cayenne diesel. The latest member of the family, a 2004 Harley “Fat Boy” FLSTFI.