Sue Petersen Lubow, who became the first female head coach and the first female athletic director at a United States military service academy, attaining both posts at the Merchant Marine Academy, died on Monday in Manhasset, N.Y. She was 61.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, her ex-husband, Stuart Lubow, said.
In 1979, shortly after joining the academy’s athletics department, Ms. Petersen Lubow became head coach of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. She achieved a combined record of 148-67 and produced two Division III N.C.A.A. national champions during her 11 years as coach at the academy, in Kings Point, N.