On any given weekday at Schurz High School, Susanne Conners went from teaching English to special education students, to helping foreign students with the language, to celebrating classic literature with brainy upperclassmen.
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Preparing for classes at so many different levels “was a heck of a lot of work,” said daughter Dr. Marilynn Frederiksen.
But she embraced the challenges and maintained a tight kinship with the Milwaukee Avenue high school, its students, teachers and administrators throughout her tenure as a teacher there, which stretched from about 1953 until 1976.
Mrs. Conners, 93, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on Saturday, April 10, at her daughter’s home in Park Ridge, Frederiksen said. She was also a resident of Park Ridge.
The former Susanne Ostergren was born in Minneapolis, but her family came to Chicago in 1929. Her father was a violinist and school band director.
She graduated from Senn High School during the Great Depression. According to Frederiksen, only the valedictorian from her class was able to land a job, at a zipper factory.
She attended North Park University (then a two-year college) before getting a bachelor’s degree in education from Northwestern University and then a master’s in English from the Evanston school.
After World War II, she taught English at the University of Illinois’ Navy Pier campus, crammed with returning GIs. Among her fellow teachers was Paul Conners, whom she married.
After having children, she started at Schurz and maintained a busy schedule of classes of all levels during her two-plus decades there. She most enjoyed teaching English as a Second Language, where her students came from as many as 10 countries, her daughter said.
“She liked the kids because they were much more eager to learn,” her daughter said.
A member of the teachers union, she readily stepped on to the picket line during teacher strikes in an effort to better the lot for her and her fellow educators, her daughter said. For many years, she was adviser to the school’s yearbook staff.
“She was really into her school, she knew everybody and had friends throughout the school,” her daughter said.
She also is survived by her husband; another daughter, Alice; and five grandchildren.
Services were held.