Classmate spotlight...

I had the pleasure of catching up with and learning about one of our classmates since our days at WHS, Susan Mccaulay. Susan has been very successful as a musician and lawyer.   Please read on!

After high school, Susan attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano. Susan had always thought she would pursue a career in classical music, but as the saying goes, “Humans plan. God laughs.” When Susan graduated from Oberlin in 1974, about the only thing she could do with a music degree was to go get another music degree – a Masters or a Ph.D. – but she was kind of burned out after four years of practicing three to four hours a day. Susan decided to take a year off before going on with her musical training.

Somehow, that year turned into six, and instead of attending graduate school in music, Susan ended up as a law student at Loyola U. of Chicago School of Law. She put herself through law school working as a computer programmer – you didn’t need a degree in computer science back then, and being able to type fast really helped - and went to work as an attorney for the Burroughs Corporation (now part of Unisys) right after law school.

The ‘80s were an intense time in the world of corporate law, and Susan became more and more involved in the financing aspects of the work she was doing. She eventually took the leap into the world of financial services law, and joined a large commercial finance company now owned by GE Capital.   She also got her Master of Laws in Financial Services law, as well as a Master of Liberal Arts degree in the Humanities from the University of Chicago, going to school at night and working during the day.   Susan knew by then that she would likely never return to music as a profession, but she did continue to perform with a local orchestra, playing an occasional piano concerto and filling in any gaps in the percussion section, teaching a piano lesson now and then, accompanying soloists, and playing keyboards in a band for several years.

By the mid-‘90s, Susan had landed at the Chicago office of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, a New York-based mega-law firm. It was a great place to work from a professional standpoint. She got to work on deals you’ve probably read about in the paper, the largest of which involved the sale of assets to the tune of just over $2 billion. Susan also had a number of opportunities to travel, both on business and for pleasure, and over a period of about 15 years, she was able to visit every continent except Antarctica. Susan continued with her music whenever she had the chance.

In 1992, Susan heard from a friend that in China there were thousands of baby girls who were being abandoned, or worse, solely because they were girls due to China’s one-child policy. Susan had always wanted a family, but had been so busy for so long with her career and travels and music that she hadn’t paid a lot of attention to when or how that was going to happen. When she heard about the situation in China, however, she knew right then and there that she would adopt a baby girl from China, whether or not she ever had a biological child of her own.

Several years later, Susan was ready, and went through the application process, which involved a mountain of paperwork, interviews, home studies, more paperwork, and what seemed like endless periods of waiting. Finally, she received word that the Chinese government had approved her and was offering her the opportunity to adopt an adorable toddler who was living with a foster family in Jiangxi Province. Susan couldn’t say yes fast enough. In late February 2000, she left for China, and on March 5, she met her daughter for the very first time, in a dingy hotel room in Nanchang – her very own baby girl, who she named Lauren. She changed Susan’s life forever. As soon as they got back to the United States, Susan switched her status at her law firm to part-time (meaning she ONLY had to work 40 hours a week), and began her application to adopt another baby girl from China.

In 2001, Susan moved to a mid-size Chicago firm, where the travel was less and the hours more reasonable, and soon got the call she’d been waiting for. Her second daughter was a chubby-cheeked baby girl named “Ocean Jade,” who was living in an orphanage in Hunan Province, which is immediately to the west of where her older daughter was from. Her younger daughter, who she named Anna, was placed in her arms on March 10, 2002, this time in a hotel elevator lobby in a city called Changsha. Her daughter Lauren, who was then 3-1/2, was there with Susan to welcome her.

Time has flown by since then. Susan eventually left big-firm life to hang out her shingle so that she could spend as much time with her girls as possible. Susan’s solo practice grew beyond her ability to manage it alone, so earlier this year she joined the firm of Culhane Meadows. Fortunately, it’s a cloud-based firm, so she still gets to work from home most of the time.

Susan’s daughters are the light of her life. Lauren is now 16, and will be getting her drivers license next week (gulp). She is an artist as well as a musician, and played competitive volleyball (made the Freshman A team) up until the year, when the time commitment got to be too much. Her younger daughter Anna is in an academically gifted program, and is a talented writer, having already won several awards for her short stories. She is also an accomplished gymnast. Susan still considers herself a musician, but she doesn’t perform as much anymore. Time is definitely at a premium.

Susan says WHS seems so long ago in some ways, but not in others. Up until her parents died in late 2009 and early 2010, Susan and her daughters came to Woodbridge 4-6 times a year, and she always had fun showing her kids the house on Grady Drive where she lived until her family moved to High Street in 1962, the schools she’d attended (although she was saddened to find that there was nothing left of Strawberry Hill), the Woodbridge Pond where she skated, places she’d held summer jobs, the Big White Church. Loretta Keating and Susan are still friends, and see each other whenever they can, although they live 800 miles apart. And mostly through her, Susan still keeps up with Betsy Trautwein and Susan Baumgartner Elbin.

We contacted Loretta Keating for her thoughts on her long time friendship with Susan. Susan and Loretta met when her family moved to High Street at the end of 1962. It did not take Loretta very long to figure out that she was extraordinary.   She could play anything and everything on the piano. In the sixth grade, she was so far ahead in reading that she was her own one-person reading group. She could play Bridge. You get the picture. But she rarely talked about herself, and the thing I remember most about the time we spent together is how much we laughed. Sometimes we would laugh so hard neither of us could talk. And we have continued to laugh a lot throughout the years. I treasure our friendship, which now includes her lovely daughters, and I think it might be about time for a visit to Illinois!

In talking with Susan, I asked if she had any regrets. Susan immediately answered that she did not because what she did at the time was exactly what she wanted to do. Susan tries to instill in her daughters the same idea. She encourages them to look at the whole person, not what you see on the outside. She loved physics with Doc Lane and participating in our WHS Band. Susan hasn’t made it to a reunion yet, and unfortunately can’t come this year either, but there’s always the 50^th! She would love to have a picnic in Merrill Park next time, like the ones the Woodbridge Fire Dept. used to have every summer. Susan never, ever gets dressed up any more, so a picnic is what she wants!   (A girl after my own heart in that I also hate to get dressed in anything more than jeans!!!)

Susan, thank you for taking the time to talk with me and for allowing us to profile another WHS 1970 graduate.   Your success has been amazing and we are all glad you have found such happiness. Hope to see you at the 50^th!