Suzanne E. Wade, Ph.D., class of 1963 earned her B.A. at SUNY Albany in 1967 and her Master's from there in 1969. As a single mother, she was determined to get a higher education so that she could teach at the university level.
After gaining teaching experience working with at risk children in upstate New York and New York City, Suzanne was accepted at the College of Education at Harvard University. During her studies, she spent time teaching reading to children with disabilities in the Philippines and then China. After completing her Doctorate in Education from Harvard in 1984, she moved west to the University of Utah, where she was a Professor in the College of Education until her untimely death in 2007.
She was a nationally recognized scholar in reading and literacy, publishing many books and articles, who made a significant impact in the lives of children and families in Utah and across the nation. She received many distinguished honors including a National Academy of Education Spencer Fellowship and a Career Development Award from the Joseph P Kennedy Jr. Foundation. She received both the Research and Teaching Awards from the College of Education in 1999 and was awarded the University of Utah's highest teaching honor, The Distinguished Teaching Award.
Suzanne never lost her identification with single mothers hoping to better their circumstances by furthering their education and acted as a mentor to young women at the University. Suzanne and her husband Alan McLaren endowed a scholarship to support a single parent enrolled as a student at the University of Utah. The scholarship is specifically directed toward young women who are on the same path Suzanne once traveled.
Suzanne is remembered by friends and colleagues as someone who had an ability to "...create community. She had a way of bringing a diverse group of people and ideas together in ways that were always respectful. She did this with her family, her students and her colleagues".
One of her classmates commented…"Suzanne’s career was about teaching and teacher education, but her life was about friends and family. To say that she was always cheerful, always smiling, frequently giggling would probably be inaccurate, yet that is how everyone remembers her. The Harvard doctor with the giggle. She has enriched the lives of so many of us, with her compassion, her friendship, her strength, and her love."