Susan Sholander
Susan “Sue” Sholander was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in a private ceremony in December. She was survived by her partner, Michael Gaughan (Brooklyn, NY), brother Mark Sholander (Glenwood MN), sister Diane Sjolander (Lawrence), beloved uncles, devoted cousins and many faithful, lifelong friends.
Sue was born March 29, 1951, in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Marlow Canon Sholander and Patricia Green Sholander. She graduated from Shaker Heights High School (Shaker Heights, Ohio) in 1969.
Sue worked as a psychotherapist in private practice, most recently from her own home in Pitman, New Jersey, for many years. She began her career as licensed clinical social worker at the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center (Philadelphia, PA), Camcare Community Mental Health Center (Camden, NJ), and the Counseling Program (PA Hospital, NJ division). In Brooklyn, New York, Sue worked in the Kingsbrook Hospital Outpatient Psychiatric Unit and the Kingsbrook Hospital Dialysis Unit. After her relocation to Lawrence, Sue worked for Kansas Health Solutions (Topeka, KS) and Research Psychiatric Center (KC, MO).
Sue served as a consultant to the Drug Enforcement Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice, in DEA’s Employee Assistance Program, and the Camden (NJ) County Fire Marshal’s Office for Firehawk, a fire starter prevention program. Sue conducted many workshops at national and regional conferences on the topics of adolescent suicide; school behavior and families in crisis; crisis intervention with children; impact of chronic illness on families; grief counseling; and the media’s impact on women’s self-esteem.
Ms. Sholander received her Master’s of Social Work from the University of Michigan in 1975, and her Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Michigan in 1973.
Sue was a talented photographer and loved to take candid shots of vendors working on the streets of New York, and animals of all species and sizes wherever she found them. Her most favorite subjects were Murray, her Great Dane, and Riley, her Miniature Poodle.
Sue died suddenly on October 17, 2011. The family suggests that contributions in her memory be made to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (www.naafa.org) a human rights organization that is dedicated to ending size discrimination in all its forms to help build a society in which people of every size are accepted with dignity and equality in all aspects of life.