Susan Hubbell Dawson

1920 - 2022

Susan Hubbell Dawson was born July 29, 1920, in Bedford, Ohio, to Charles E. Hubbell and Lois Wheeler Hubbell. Susan died on March 6, 2022 in Baton Rouge. After completing high school in Bedford, she enrolled at Hiram College, in Hiram, Ohio, where her parents and older brother Robert had graduated. Susan graduated from Hiram in 1940. During World War II she worked with the Red Cross and matriculated in the School of Social Service at the University of Chicago, earning a Master's Degree in Social Work in 1944. Her varied career as a social worker included being home visitor at St. Marks Peace Settlement House in New York City and a caseworker for the Red Cross in Charleston, South Carolina. Later moving with her family to Louisiana, she was a caseworker in the Children's Division of the Department of Public Welfare in Covington, a psychiatric social worker for the State Department of Hospitals in Bogalusa, and worked in several social work assignments for the East Baton Rouge Parish public schools. Beginning in 1962 she accepted a position as a lecturer in the School of Social Welfare at Louisiana State University, where she drew upon her extensive professional experience in social work. She taught several classes and mentored numerous graduate students who became social workers. Susan rose through the faculty ranks, gaining promotion to full professor in 1975. While at LSU she served on the Graduate Faculty as well as the Faculty Council and was president of the Women's Faculty Club (1982-1983). In addition to her own publications and presentations at professional conferences, Susan was associate editor of the Journal of the International Association of Pupil Personnel Workers and consulting editor of the Journal of International Comparative Social Welfare. She retired from the LSU faculty in 1987. Susan married Corporal Joseph G. Dawson, Jr., an aerial gunnery instructor in the U.S. Army Air Force, in 1944. After the war he earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Subsequently, he taught at universities in North Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, where he was full professor of Psychology at LSU. Susan was his wife until his death in 1996. The couple had two children, Joseph G. Dawson, III, and Stephanie Wheeler Dawson. Over the years the family resided in Illinois, North Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida, before returning to Louisiana in 1962. Susan's social activities in Baton Rouge included memberships in the Perennials Garden Club, Delta Kappa Gamma, Chapter AC/PEO, the Woman's Club, and the Baton Rouge Opera Guild. Susan is survived by Joseph G. Dawson, III, of College Station, Texas, and Stephanie Dawson Abell of Monroe, Louisiana. Susan's survivors also include granddaughter Ashley Dawson Oliphant and husband Zachary Oliphant, and their children Kane, Emery, and Haden, of Magnolia, Texas; grandson Joseph E. Dawson and wife Marissa and their sons, Everette and Easton, of Fort Worth, Texas; grandson Graham N. Abell, of Baltimore, Maryland; and granddaughter Claire Abell Fletcher and husband Nate Fletcher, and their children Georgia Nell and Jack Hughes, of Denver, Colorado. Gifts may be made in Susan's memory to Louisiana Public Broadcasting (Baton Rouge Station), and the Baton Rouge Opera Guild (address: Baton Rouge Opera Guild Treasurer, 9164 Oxford Place, Baton Rouge, LA 70809), or a charity of one's choice. Across nearly two decades, Susan herself and her family has appreciated the efforts of the cordial administrators and many caring staff, doctors, and nurses (including Susie Boudinot) of St. James Place retirement community in Baton Rouge. Family memorial service is pending.