Susan Hawkins was my friend of longest standing in the English Department at Oakland. A dear friend and, as I often told her in recent years, a sister. Smart and quick minded, with a wide range of intellectual interests, she was a dedicated teacher and scholar. She had high standards, and carried these standards into the classroom, so that she required good work from students. And she taught my daughter to swear like a sailor, but that is another story...
I first met Susan at the MLA, which she attended with Bob Eberwein and Mark Workman; they comprised the hiring committee. I was wet, since it had been raining in San Francisco, and I was late, since I had gotten lost finding the hotel. I had just come from the most terrible interview I had ever given, one in which I was all too soon led to the awful details of that interview. That I did so while laughing a bit convinced Susan, she later told me, that I would be a nice colleague to have around.
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A Story About Susan
from Ed Hoeppner