Susan FitzGerald papers

Susan FitzGerald was born in Boston on October 4th, 1908 to Richard Y. FitzGerald and noted suffragist and founder of Bryn Mawr's Self-Government Association, Susan Walker FitzGerald (Bryn Mawr Class of 1893). She attended public schools in Boston from 1914-1924 before entering Bryn Mawr College in 1925. She spent her junior year abroad in Munich and graduated cum laude from Bryn Mawr with honors in German in 1929. FitzGerald continued her career in German, teaching German at the Milton Academy from 1930-1932 and the Mary E. Curley School from 1932-1933. In 1934, she moved to Spain for 10 months, living with Alice Bache Gould for ten months. When she returned to the US, she began teaching Spanish and German at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut, from 1935-1942. In 1940, she received her M.A. in Spanish from the Middlebury Summer School after several summers. From 1942-1945, she taught Spanish and German at the Chapin School in New York City. FitzGerald made an abrupt career change in 1945, undergoing Red Cross training. In 1946, she became a US Army Hostess, Officer of Theater Chief of Special Services, Headquarters USFET, where she was assigned to the AEF Club, in Frankfort, Germany. From 1949-1956, FitzGerald worked at the Institute for Intercultural Relations in Lima, Peru and as the Director of Courses for the United States Information Agency. She worked as the USIA program officer in the English Teaching Branch, in Washington, D.C. from 1956-1957. From 1957-1961, she worked as the Deputy Director of the Turkish-American Association, in Ankara. Later, in 1961-1966, she worked as the Director of the American Language Center in Beirut. She worked as an English Teaching Officer from 1966-1967. Cairo was evacuated in 1967. FitzGerald worked as the Director of the English Language Program in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 1967-1972 before retiring from the U.S. Information Agency in 1972. She later published an English-language teaching book called Reading Your Way to English.