Susan Elizabeth Hanson M.D.

FUNERAL HOME

Schmidt & Schulta Funeral Home - Wittenberg

401 W. College Ave

Wittenberg, Wisconsin

Susan Hanson Obituary

Hanson, Susan

Elizabeth, M.D.

Wittenberg, WI: After a full and glorious life, Susan Hanson, M.D., moved on to a different adventure May 2, 2015. She was born November 25, 1937 in Wausau, daughter of the late Irving and Doris (Hager) Hanson.

Susan grew up in Wittenberg and graduated Valedictorian of her class at Wittenberg High School. She was the first woman from WHS to enter medical school. She attended Hiram College in Ohio where she attained her Bachelor's Degree. She spent time in Europe with fellow students experiencing the world outside WI and Ohio. This sparked a love of travel. Susan attended medical school at the University of Chicago, interned at the Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, PA and completed her residency in 1967 at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York. During that time she traveled to Africa.

Dr. Susan started her career as director at the Monroe County Psychiatric Hospital Unit in Rochester, New York. In 1973, she became the Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Director at the Genesee Mental Health Center in Rochester. After eleven very productive years with Genesee, Susan opened her own private practice as well as working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rochester until her retirement.

Susan, an advocate for those with chronic alcoholism, became a member of the East House Board and was instrumental in the development of the halfway house program. In 1983, the first Crossroads home located in Rochester was named Hanson House in her honor. She worked diligently as an advocate for many causes including Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, Monroe County Medical Society, Coalition for Women's Health, Greater Rochester Women's Fund and others. Dr. Susan received honors from the following: Leroy Snyder Memorial Award, National Council on Alcoholism, Rochester Women's Magazine and became a Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association.

After retirement, Susan returned to the family home in Wittenberg where she continued to offer her vision and energy for numerous organizations. From its inception in 2005, Susan has been involved with the Walls Of Wittenberg (WOW). With her expertise and leadership, WOW has been able to provide central Wisconsin with art shows and concerts drawing artists and audiences from across the state. Susan has been instrumental in creating and updating WOW's website, writing grant applications, organizing art shows and contests and hiring artists to paint murals.

Susan was the secretary of the Wittenberg Area Historical Society and worked on fundraising projects to maintain and repair the Society's building. She was a board member for Forest Home Cemetery in Wittenberg, the Shawano Area Community Foundation and the Wittenberg Area Development Corporation and served as a member of the Planning Commission for the Village of Wittenberg Development Corporation. In April 2015, Susan received the 2015 Wittenberg Community Service Award sponsored by Nueske's Applewood Smoked Meats.

Susan was devoted to doing the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzles in ink and reading it cover to cover. She continued to travel including trips to Norway and Costa Rica. She had an amazing eye for interesting and unusual art and ethnic craft and filled her home with many wonderful pieces. Susan was a fabulous cook, planning elaborate menus for parties, some theme based and complete with costumes! An avid reader of most genres, she frequently had 3 or 4 books going at a time and loved sharing great authors with friends and family.

Her passion for gardening was passed down from her parents and her garden was colorful and joyous.

Survivors include her siblings, Robert (Gayle) Hanson, Crossville, TN, Phillip (Mary Jane) Hanson, DVM, Durand and Mary Hanson-Spofford, Seattle, WA, nieces, nephews and their children and a cohort of loving friends.

Susan was preceded in death by her parents and niece Anna Hanson, sister-in-law Mary Jane Hanson and Jean Hanson.

A Susan concert will be held at the WOW Art Park at a later date-to be announced. Private internment will take place at the Forest Home Cemetery. Schmidt & Schulta Funeral Home, Wittenberg is assisting the family with arrangements. Memories and condolences may be shared at schmidtschulta.com. In memory of Susan, please consider a memorial to one of her cherished causes.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, PO Box 510795, Milwaukee, WI 53203-9815

National Women's Health Network, 1413 K St NW #400, Washington, DC 20005

Doctors Without Borders, 333 Seventh Ave., 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001-5004

Walls of Wittenberg, PO Box 188, Wittenberg, WI 54499

East House, 259 Monroe Ave., Rochester, NY 14604-2318

Garth Fagan Dance, 50 Chestnut St., 4th Floor, Rochester, NY 14604-2318

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Rochester Democrat And Chronicle on May 6, 2015.

Memories and Condolences
for Susan Hanson

11 Entries

Peter Kogut

February 5, 2016

In 1972, I was a second year medical student at the University of Rochester. I took an elective to study alcoholism with Dr Hanson. It was the first time I would be assigned to a patient and psychiatrists made me nervous. When we met , she gazed down over her glasses and I noticed a faint but warm smile and she had a twinkle in her eyes. She put me at ease right way. Dr. Hanson was an excellent teacher and a caring physician.I am grateful to have known her.

Myra Scott Nye

July 20, 2015

I am so sorry to know of Susan's passing. I so enjoyed her the short time I knew her and how she gave me the chance to exhibit my srarchbrd. art at wow gallery. May you rest in peace.

Mariquita West

May 20, 2015

Susan Hanson was my best friend through much of my 20's and 30's. We met In Rochester NY as the only two women residents in a psychiatric residency program of about 30 men, and we befriended and supported each other through the next critical years. As Susan said in one of her last emails to me, we shared " the mysteries of learning how to be psychiatrists and adult women.

We were different in many ways. I was more intellectual, she was more practical. I was interested in depth psychology, while she specialized in supportive care for difficult conitions, especially alcoholism. I liked to talk about my feelings, she was more of a taciturn midwesterner. She was an administrator and a community networker, and I was in private practice and academic teaching. She loved African art, antiques, quaint objects, and I read books and went hiking. We were an odd combo for a close friendship, and our differences combined with our geographical separation led to our drifting apart for some years.

But Susan contacted me when she moved back to Wittenberg, and we began an email correspondence that rekindled our friendship and led to her visiting me in California and my going to Wittenberg this past February. I realized with fresh appreciation what a unique and
interesting person she was, and that what we had in common was greater than our differences. She was doing well in February, and I was shocked as well as very saddened by her fairly sudden death and my loss of a friend too recently regained.

Susan disliked electronics, never had even a cell phone, but she wrote wonderful e-mails. She was often more personal and expressive in them than in her usual conversation. She was funny as well as thoughtful. I had not realized she cared about politics, but she expressed her pained dismay at our current dysfunction in wry and insightful ways.

In her personal life, I think all who knew her experienced her as clear and resolute about how she wanted to live (and die). She was quietly unconventional, at the same time that she was an activist in her community in both Rochester and Wittenberg. She had a wonderful eye for good art, and her colorful little house was a delightful museum of the beautiful and the unusual.
Her life was filled with creativity and generosity.

Susan dealt with her terminal cancer diagnosis in her usual matter-of-fact way, devoid of self pity. Her email announcing it to me was titled Wowie kazowie!. She contrasted her reaction to one earlier when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She said, Now it is like - well, that is how I am going to die and at least I can stop worrying about moldering away in some locked unit with my Alzheimer's.

Susan 's death is a great loss both to all of us who loved her personally, and also to her home town of Wittenberg, which she loved and literally made more colorful with her devotion to the WOW mural project there and various art and music related events.

Susan, I'll never forget you!

Mariquita West

Susan in Africa, early 1970's

Mariquita West

May 14, 2015

May 9, 2015

A most impressive lady, her most recent life was certainly one worth living and made a difference in countless lives. RIP until the next one.

May 6, 2015

I have had the privilege of knowing Susan Hanson since 1976 as one of her patients. She helped me in so many ways, not only by her wonderful professional expertise, but also by her kindness,humor,laughter, and caring. My life is better because of knowing her. My prayers and condolences to her family. Sincerely, Anne deMare (Rochester,NY)

Mel Pisetzner

May 6, 2015

Susan was a friend, a mentor and a fierce advocate. Because of her passion, compassion and creativity, she changed for the positive, the way alcoholics and the mentally ill are treated in Monroe County. One of Rochester's great women will be missed by me, those she worked and those whose lives she helped change

May 6, 2015

Susan was a long time friend. We shared holidays, meals, books, laughter and sadness together. A rare person and a privelege to know. I will miss her enormously.

Steve Levine (Rochester, Keuka lake and Providence,RI)

Joan Weigand-Camardo

May 6, 2015

Deepest condolences to Dr. Hanson's family. I worked with her at Genesee Hospital in the 80's. She worked hard for her patients and was a great asset to the mental health community especially.

Ann Marie Brewer

May 6, 2015

Dr. Hanson used to come into my Wegmans Store 24 Perinton (Fairport NY) at 9 pm every Saturday night to get the first copy of the Sunday New York Times, so she could work the crossword puzzle. The NYT crossword puzzle was clearly the highlight of her week. Glad you put an obituary in the D & C, as I have often thought of her over the years. Oh and nobody has come looking for the early NYT since she moved to Wisconsin.

RIP from your Wegmans Cashier Ann Marie

Pamela Klainer

May 5, 2015

I was a friend of Susan's during her time in Rochester. She and I worked together as board members on the newly formed Women's Fund. She was brilliant and brave, always placing the needs of vulnerable women and their children first, and insisting that energy put toward stroking demanding donors come low on the triage list. I thought she was incisive, supremely competent, generous with time for causes she believed in, and unrelenting in her desire to make the world a better place. I'm sorry to hear of her death, and send my deepest condolences to family and friends who love her.

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