Susan Ward
Knapczyk
I was born at the
Columbia, SC air base during WWII, where my dad was stationed. Shortly after
the war ended, my parents and I returned to Tulsa where they both had grown up.
I attended Immaculate Conception Elementary School on the north side of town
and then our family, which by then included my two brothers, Jerome and John,
moved to the south side where I attended Marquette Grade and High School. After
spending a year in OKC and Bishop McGuinness High School, we returned to Tulsa
for my senior year at Bishop Kelley.
After high school
I went to TU for 2 years, then transferred to Mt. St. Scholastica College in
Atchison, KS. There I met my husband Dennis Knapczyk and we were married in
June of 1967. During college and before our wedding I worked in my dad’s office
and in a health insurance office.
We lived in
Anaheim, Ca for the first couple of years after our marriage where Dennis was
teaching in a special education classroom. It was here that our oldest daughter
Betsy was born. Then we moved back to Lawrence, KS so that Dennis could go to
graduate school in the field of special education. Our 2nd daughter
Joanna was born there. After grad school we moved to Bloomington, IN and
Indiana University and have been here ever since, almost 40 years now.
We bought an old
farm house with some property south of town and have enjoyed gardening and
planting hardwood trees and spending time with our family which now also includes Peter, Frances, and Emily. We have 5 grandchildren
and enjoy seeing them as often as we can. Except for Emily, our kids are
scattered across the US. Emily is now
working in a special education preschool.
For about 10 years,
beginning just as our oldest was leaving
for college, we sold Christmas trees
from the field next to our house. It was a wonderful experience during the
holidays, meeting families and watching their kids grow year after year. But
the hot summer trimming, mowing, and planting became too much and we both
wanted to do other things so we gave it up. Now that field is full of birds and
wildlife as the pine trees have grown so tall.
We mow a walking path around the field. The money we earned did help us
put our kids through college.
I am looking
forward to reading about your experiences since high school and hope to see
many of you at the reunion.
An old friend and
classmate, Susan Ward Knapczyk
