Susan Earley::  My name is Susan Earley. I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin and I’m a member of the Grinnell class of 1967. I actually grew up in Madison. My father was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin there, and I was born, actually, the last three months of WWII. Had a twin brother, and my father’s war service as an economist was to do price control in DC. So, we were born in a small town in Virginia and then the war ended in August, we were born in June, and we went back to Madison, as these little tiny kids.
Susan Earley::  So, because it was the post-war boom start, my high school class was 576. And actually, I had a very high class rank, but mostly because I was very very small all my life. I was- I didn’t develop fast. On the other hand, I got put in plays at a young age and that really, was really wonderful for me.
Susan Earley::  And I just- because of that, and I got in a play at the University when I was twelve and I discovered the university and that I could explore on my own and that I didn’t have to be a typical teenager in an era where it was very... everybody was very, following the conventional, but- it's not the right word, but- And we were also- girls were not even allowed to wear jeans. We’re going to a high school where we have to walk and we can wear knee socks and skirts.
Susan Earley::  At any rate, I was so small and I was so undeveloped, and I teased somebody at a class reunion; he said to me, “You were always one of my favorites,” I said, “Well, you didn’t ask me out. It’s very nice of you to say, but you didn’t ask me out.” And other people laughed and I said "Yeah, I figured out why I was such a good student. It was 'cause I didn’t have all the raging hormones the rest of you had."
Susan Earley::  So anyway, that- the fact I knew I could go to a good college, and that I really didn’t want to end up with most of my high school class, going to the University of Wisconsin where fraternities and sororities were so strong and it just was not a life I wanted. And I was lucky enough because my mother was from the East coast, and my grandmother had a trust fund for us for our education.
Susan Earley::  My feeling is that she had hoped we would come back to the East coast. In that era there were still really strong influence of the Ivy League for boys and the Seven Sisters for girls and I knew enough from visiting my cousins that these people who came out of those prep schools that fed into those schools, and finishing schools almost- I didn’t want to do that.
Susan Earley::  So I really spent a long time with a book, going through, wanting a co-ed school- I spent hours on this book. My father took my brother and me on two tours and I picked Grinnell but then I had these typical of my era feelings, “Oh, maybe I’m not smart enough to go to Grinnell.”
Susan Earley::  So my father said, “No, no, no, I’m gonna take you to the three schools that you picked,” and I came here and I just knew. You’ve got questions about what your – I just knew. I don’t have any visual memory. I don’t have any other memory, but it was enough that I knew this was where I wanted to be, so.. I consider it one of the really- y'know, luck is a big part of life. There can be bad luck and there can be good luck but my picking Grinnell College was really good luck.
Susan Earley::  So... one of the things about Grinnell that was just so clear was the quality of the teachers. And the professors had a love of teaching, so I can tell you that here were many professors that made a big influence on me, but if I was gonna pick one, which is one of your questions, it would be Joe Wall who probably is picked by a lot of people from my era.
Susan Earley::  But he... he taught the two- I did American Studies as a major and he did the two basic courses in American History and then this wonderful course on Constitutional History, but he just... He was a source of humanity; he was an incredibly humanitarian man, and he really inspired me then, and then later into the future I was at Iowa City, trying to get a Masters in Arts in Teaching and the program was stopped with the recession.
Susan Earley::  And then three years later, after working as a lab assistant, 'cause I had done lab work in high school, my boss said, “Why don’t you apply for Nursing?” Well, they turned me down. They thought I was too old. So, I just... I got Joe Wall to write a letter. I got my history professor at the graduate school at Iowa to write a letter and my boss, and I wrote a letter saying, “I think I’m gonna have less at the end of my life, a profession, but maybe I’ll bring more at the beginning. And I'm included these letters and I’m including my transcript. I went to the best liberal arts college in this state and I went to graduate school here. I think I can do the academic work.”
Susan Earley::  It turned out that, y’know, it was something I was very good at. My boss was absolutely right, that I had a personality perfectly suited to be a nurse and then I actually did a lot of Patient Education. Anyways, so Joe Wall, you know, helped me get into that program. And then when he did a sesquicentennial tour – and everybody went to those tours, it was with Al Jones too. It was the- an amazing number of people and it was just so wonderful that he remembered my name.
Susan Earley::  The student that made the most impression on me was the third person I met when I came and that was in my room. My roommate hadn’t come. It was freshman year, and she walked out of the room across the hall on Main 1st and she was Japanese-American descent from Hawaii. And I had actually been there that summer before and my father had wanted our family to kind of come together. We had- I had a step-sister in Hawaii, and we were there, so I said, “June, what island are you from?” 'cause you couldn’t travel to other islands then. She said “Kavai,” and she also pronounced Hawaii that way, and I joked with her- I said, “Well I’m a Haole, aren’t I?” which is the Hawaiian name for white person.
Susan Earley::  And so at any rate, she had a full scholarship- pretty much a full scholarship and she had relatives in Los Angeles, but she didn’t have really the money to fly there, so she would come back to spend Christmases with us. And I‘ve kept contact with her. There was times when we lost contact, but I stood up for her. And it- now you’re here and you see so many people. It’s much more divergent population that you have now.
Susan Earley::  We had three international students in our class. One fifth of the groups were from Iowa. One- I was friends with one Black man from New York but- and there were other African Americans, but you know, June was just an inspiration to me because she had come from such poverty and yet she was the immigrant story too, because her sisters and brothers didn’t have the opportunity she did.
Susan Earley::  And then, I did work study here and I started in the Union. And having a staff member, this woman who was a townie, and flipped the burgers. I did the sodas. She flipped the burgers. And I just loved working with her. I am embarrassed to say I forgot my name but that was one thing that I felt that was really special, was to get to know the actual staff people, the people that were not students and were not... So I’m really glad you have that question.
Susan Earley::  Grinnell just gave me a legacy. Also, I was with it in a lot of ways before I came here, I was very- We didn’t have television ‘til John Kennedy was gonna run for the primary in Wisconsin and my twin brother and I persuaded my- You can, by the way, just edit me. ‘Cause I know I’m going over.
Sophie Haas & Susan Earley::  Oh, no, no. No, there’s no time limit.
Sophie Haas & Susan Earley::  OK, OK. So my twin brother and I persuaded my mother, my parents were divorced by then, that we needed a television because we really needed to follow this important Presidential campaign and we were volunteers for Kennedy’s campaign during the primary. And in fact, I found a letter that was signed, probably by a secretary then, I don’t know if they had, depends, but I have it, thanking me for my work. Senator Kennedy.
Sophie Haas & Susan Earley::  Wow.
Susan Earley::  So, we were really energized by our awakening of what was going on in the South, so Civil Rights, because on our black and white televisions we were seeing these images. And slso, the Milwaukee Braves had left and gone to Atlanta and we said, 'Well we’re not following them to the Confederacy.' Any rate, I’m saying that because I had it before I got to Grinnell but Grinnell was just completely consistent with my idea.
Susan Earley::  I also had not been raised with a religion. My parents were both atheists and I had explored religions and got involved in the Congregational Church youth group because they taught the Social Gospel and... I was on a roll, excuse me, I’m tired, but.... The feeling that I needed to give back was always with me, too. Partly because of the Grinnell education, and then partly because of the fact that then my twin brother got schizophrenia and he didn’t have the kind of future that I had.
Susan Earley::  And so, the teaching I kind of saw as a service. And later, the Nursing was definitely- I had made a choice to do that. I could have gone to law school at that point. I could have done a lot of other things, but- because the women’s movement had happened between when I graduated, and when I went to the College. I was definitely involved in the women’s movement of the 70s, but I wanted to do some service. I ended up in Washington, DC after being in a Madison- a Renal Transplant program, so I worked for fifteen years with really sick people and then I didn’t develop antibodies so that I felt I needed to be in a safer kind of medicine.
Susan Earley::  So I had this clinic for people who traveled internationally, and also the sad part about the women’s movement was that younger women were coming up who were benefiting from what we had done, and would get to the level of being residents or fellows and even though our... the medical director of the Division of Nephrology, I was teaching a form of dialysis for patients, said, "Susie and the other nurse, Joan, they know everything. You want to really learn from them." But, they didn’t treat, women doctors did not treat women nurses well. That was a big disillusionment to me. So, by going into the clinic where I was on my own and it was my thing, I survived by doing that.
Susan Earley::  And also, my liberal arts background really helped because in Washington there were so many high-powered people came to my clinic, y'know? And I could really relate so easy, and quickly, fastly, I could engage and get their rapport really quickly, and... And I think a lot of that was because I had not been trained just to think about nursing as limited to skills. The University of Iowa taught concepts and of course I thought conceptually because you don’t get out of Grinnell without thinking conceptually. So, essentially, I consider that Grinnell gave me a reaffirmation of who I always thought I was going to be.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  And then, it was such a strong legacy that it carried me through a lot of times, you know? I talked about bad luck- two recessions definitely changed my life. Although, one of the things I did was save like crazy and I was lucky enough to be able to go back to Madison in retirement so I could take care of my mother, and also I had a second marriage which was- is, and continues to be wonderful but he ended up getting a- having a heart attack.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Oh no.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  But I knew what was going on and I gave him two aspirin and I called and I said, “Get all the bags ready. Trust me, my husband’s having a heart attack.” And so they were able to stop the heart attack but he needed a six-vessel bypass. So-
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Oh my gosh.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Oh yeah, I didn’t even know there were six places.
Susan Earley::  But, where I was, which was George Washington University- You probably can relate to this because we’re in an era when we’re talking about loss of benefits and loss of health care. I had volunteered for the Health Care Initiative for the Clintons, and I’m a big believer and that Obama did the best he could, but you know, you need to have insurance and I could get my insurance back from having been in Madison as a nurse.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  So, I’m back home there and this was really my first time able to get back to Grinnell. I’d come once when I was in Iowa City and, y'know, my impressions are “Wooow.” First of all, I’m really glad the rooms are still spartan because the money oughta be put into the classrooms and every other place.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Y'know, I love the fact that the dorms are still spartan.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  My husband, who is not from here, is kind of complaining a little bit. But you walk around this campus and you can tell that the College has figured out exactly where they should put their monies. And that- the beautiful places, you can study anywhere, right? And the Science Building is amazing. We had a wonderful tour with a young woman- I’m sorry to say I’m so off.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Oh, no. Not at all.
Susan Earley::  One of the things I’d like to say about Grinnell that was amazing but it was so true everywhere: you look at LGBT history. Stonewall was ’69. That was really the start. And so yesterday when there was a talk of different generations, and I do work for LGBT rights in Madison. In Wisconsin, I’ve been on their main volunteer for- since the campaign to stop the amendment making marriage not possible and they unfortunately won.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  But, I got a Civil Rights award for being-
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Oh, wow.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah I did. It was pretty cool. And I was on a- I was in a radio broadcast interview and I didn’t name the name but I said, “I really went to a very progressive college.” And because of the times, only one person ever came out to me. It was a male student.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah, and I mean, I look back, I know some of my friends that I knew from now, y’know.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  So, I’m very glad that Grinnell... has extended itself, and this is an oasis in a lot of ways. I mean, Iowa, I think, is pretty good. But still, in Wisconsin, many, many, many of the young people that I’ve gotten to know who are in the LGBT community left northern Wisconsin because Madison’s safer.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Mm.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Y'know?
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  And- oh, the other thing I want to say about Grinnell, too- what thing that I see is one of the biggest changes, which I think is so positive is that there’s more involvement with the town by the College.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah. It’s very clear and one time when I went to Iowa City, because I had lived there and I was- two older people had died and I was- the last one had died and I was asked to be one of the speakers for him, and I went to a restaurant in Iowa City and when I was single for years in DC you learned a women could just go into any restaurant, and the best place to sit was at the bar and ask if you could eat there, you know?
Susan Earley::  So I’m doing that and she’s talking to me, and I said- about - I was gonna go over to Grinnell tomorrow morning, which was Sunday, just to see it, and she said, “I’m from Grinnell. I’m from the town of Grinnell.” And she told me about all the effort that the College had made to bring things to the high schools and what a difference it made for her. So, I knew already what’s been confirmed by listing the students of your age and how much more the college and the town are together. That’s the impression I get.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  I think a l- and you can correct me, but I think a lot of it is, as she said, they put a lot of money and got us all computers. That’s pretty damn cool.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  You know? Because, Joe Wall once- I mean in our era it was not. The Town and Gown, was like, [sound effect].
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yes.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  And he gave a lecture once and he said "You know, this is the situation here. Some people in this town have never seen the college.” And again, that’s why I sought out staff members, because they were townies, and they had something to teach me too.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Mhm.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  So... I think I’ve gone too far.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  You can keep going if you want.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  You gonna edit it?
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  They’ll transcribe it later.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  OK.
Susan Earley::  My favorite academic experiences or class? Every single one of them was, except French. French was a woman from France and she didn’t do any conversational French! And then Economics- my father was an Economics professor and at that point at that year that I took this course, he was chairman. And this wonderful young professor, who many of us have talked about how good he was this weekend, he would say, “Miss Earley you should know the answer to this question.” On- Economics was not, I was not, well... But he was great, again, you know, he was a fabulous professor and he actually went on to be in Madison in the Poverty Institute.
Susan Earley::  I was sorry I took Intro to things. I took something like Intro to Sociology. Boring. So obviously, you know, the fact that you’re all doing these tutorials and really going into depth is so good. So, I would say, y’know, that basically, because we were learning, even the ones that weren’t that good. Just the love of learning was here and that was a big contrast to a lot of people who went to big universities where they had TAs and they weren’t infused with the love of learning, and they weren’t surrounded by other people.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  In fact, the University of Wisconsin with fraternities and sororities, they didn’t value... They were drinking.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  In our era here, they may have been drinking on the North Campus, but there was no booze that I was aware of on the South Campus. And so I would say, definitely, I can’t say a favorite because I loved it all. I loved being in work study. I loved- eventually ended up in the dining rooms for special events, and so... for example, it was pretty cool when Harry Truman came and I waited on him.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Wow.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  That's amazing.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  There’s a great picture of him, right here at the bottom of the elevator.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  And he was someone who believed in what he'd call his morning constitution. So, we were all invited to go out to the Grinnell House and meet him at 6 o’clock. This is a true story. He walks out of the Grinnell House and of course it’s, y'know- doo doo doo! And we can see him even though we’re way back, and all of a sudden he’s going like this, and he’s fallen in the bushes!
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Oh no!
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yes! But he got up! I mean, he was fine.
Susan Earley::  Oh, what did my dorm look like? I said I’m glad it’s still spartan. I have no idea what clothes I wore every day. I think that I didn’t wear skirts and knee socks anymore. I know that I had this red jacket that my aunt had given me from Eddie Bauer in... in Seattle, which was a hunting jacket actually, bright red. So, people could often find me because my bright red jacket showed from way across.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  The town of Grinnell- y’know, I explored the town of Grinnell. I went walking a lot, and the era that I was here, the first year Highway Six was the old highway, and the Interstate opened our sophomore year and we went out, some of us walked out, to look at the Interstate. And I looked at the Interstate and I said, “Wooow. It looks like flat ribbon candy.” And when I commuted later, on I-80 you know, it became just a truckload, crowed place, but again because I’m a History major I know why that was done by President Eisenhower.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Mm.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  And...
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  But the town was definitely illy- it had an ill effect on the town. Because the Interstate was there, they didn’t have people coming in to the motels. They didn’t have people coming into the restaurants. I can see now- I’m shocked to see what’s happened but I’m looking and I’m going “OK, well, there’s Walmart. There’s that. There’s that,” but they're- You know, this has probably raised the level of income of the town people.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  So, we take that.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  So, what kind of book- what book? I cannot- I can’t say there was one book that influenced me. There were just so many.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Yeah, and you shouldn't feel like you have to answer all those too, but...
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  How has Grinnell changed? We’ve already talked about that. The biggest thing is that... the girls aren’t locked up at 10:30 at night.
Susan Earley::  What’s no longer available on campus? Hm. Well, I loved Main Hall’s dining room but I completely understand, with it being a time where we need to conserve energy, that it has to be used very rarely. But, that was where we, the women, ate. And that dining room was so phenomenal, and the light would come through, oh gosh.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  OK, I don’t have a favorite place on campus and I think, comparing students of today with your classmates, I think still very very bright, inquisitive students are coming today, but in our era most of the people I knew were here to learn, too.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Good.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  OK, I think I’m done.
Susan Earley & Sophie Haas::  Great.
