Susan Elizabeth Stuttard

Determined and stubborn, kind and generous, highly intelligent – scientifically acute and an avid reader (Atwood and Austin to Wilde and Wyndham), internet devotee (Aljazeera to Wikipedia), theoretical gardener, home decorator, knitter, and dressmaker; cryptic crossword solver; a loving mother and a marvellous cook; a strong social conscience, willing to participate in demos in the depths of winter in solidarity with workers or against war (her favourite charities were Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontiers). She was greatly taken by the epitaph on the gravestone for George Barratt (London Oct 3, 1908 – Halifax, June 2, 1943, “Killed accidentally. Beloved comrade and husband of Phyllis”) in Camp Hill Cemetery:

“We are the workers and the makers,

we are no longer dumb.

Snapping the chains of ages,

out of the night we come.”

Susan (never Susie or Sue) was born in 1946 in Dublin, Ireland, to Monica (Mona) and Rodan John Flood. Her primary and secondary education was through the medium of Irish, and was entrusted to nuns at Scoil Chaitriona, Dublin. Her sense of geography was forever impaired. On leaving school, she took a year of nurse’s training at Dr. Steevens Hospital, Dublin, and a further year of Sociology at University College Dublin, during which her life’s path changed direction when she met, chose, and married Colin, took new-born Leila on a transatlantic cruise aboard the first Queen Elizabeth, and spent two and a half years in Syracuse, NY.

In the summer of ’69 the family emigrated to Canada and settled in Halifax, where Gavin was born. Just about 12 months later, the 27th Nova Scotia general election was called, and Susan’s life-long interest in politics and human rights was kindled. She joined a women’s group to research and write the first version of “Women and the Law in Nova Scotia”, funded by the “Opportunities for Youth” programme.

After 4 more years of home-making spiced with political action, Susan spent a year in Norwich, England, leisurely absorbing the ambience of an agricultural research institute and spending time with family and friends in Ireland as well as England. Returning to Halifax, Susan resumed her undergraduate education, this time at Dalhousie University as a mature student. A summer research project in the Psychology department supervised by Dr. Bruce Moore resulted in the publication of a brief, but seminal research paper on animal behaviour (B. R. Moore and S. Stuttard, 1979, Dr. Guthrie and Felis domesticus Or: Tripping over the Cat. Science 205, 1031-1033).

She graduated with her BSc cum laude in 1979, and plunged into graduate studies in Dalhousie’s aptly-named School of Human Communication Disorders. After earning her MSc (Audiology) in 1980, she was employed by the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Clinic (NSHSC, subsequently Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centres) as a rehabilitation audiologist, mainly at the Camp Hill/Infirmary VMB site, until retirement at the end of 2003. During that time Susan was very active as a chair of the workplace Health and Safety Committee, and was instrumental in the formation of NSGEU Local 20 representing the interests of staff at the NSHSC; she was elected its first president and signed its first collective agreement on April 17, 2000. Also, during her professional career, Susan was a member of the board of the Society of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Nova Scotians (SDHHNS) where her work was greatly appreciated. In retirement, Susan was elected president of the board of the newly-formed Seniors’ College Association of Nova Scotia in November 2007, and subsequently served as a member of its Curriculum Committee.

Susan was predeceased by her father, and is survived by her mother in Dublin; daughter Leila (Matt Shaw) and her children Phoebe and Wyatt in Halifax; son Gavin (Candice Crocker) and his children Owen, Brendan, and Maeve, also in Halifax; sisters, Jane in Dublin and Christine in Switzerland; brothers Michael and Rodan (Maggie) in Sligo, Ireland.