Alumni Hall of Fame
Service to St. Marys City Schools (2025)

M. Sue Thompson was born on August 20,1938, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Clarence E. and Thelma M. Thompson. She grew up in Matthews, Indiana where she and neighborhood children explored the banks of the Mississinewa River, drank Nehi orange pop, and rode their bikes past cornfields. In August 1948, a spinal tap confirmed that Sue had polio. She was ten years old. She was in critical condition for several weeks, unable to talk, drink, or even swallow because her throat was paralyzed. As they prepared Sue to be placed in an iron lung, she caught her breath and started breathing again. This moment changed the course of her life.

Sue spent months at Ball Memorial Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. She later wrote, “The rehabilitation process was slow, painful, frustrating, and completely dehumanizing.” Doctors did not think Sue should get physical rehabilitation, but Sue’s mother, Thelma, would not give up. This was a hallmark characteristic of both Thelma and Sue who remained close their entire life. When Sue was discharged in February 1947, Thelma enrolled her in swimming lessons at the Y and took her to chiropractic treatment. Her mother also tutored her at home through her freshman year and encouraged Sue to be a child - roaming the neighborhood in her wheelchair with her friends just as she had before she contracted polio. This was maybe the best medicine. When her father transferred to work at the St. Marys Woolen Mill, St. Marys School Superintendent H.H. Cook and Principal L.L. Hurley suggested that Sue attend Memorial High School. She said she was “Frightened by the idea, but I wanted to go.” There, boys volunteered to carry her wheelchair on the stairs to make sure she got to class on time. 

Sue excelled at Memorial High School where she was an honors student and in school activities. She was the President of the Latin Club, placed as a top scholar in the “Ohio History, Ohio Government, and Citizenship Test,” and was on the Scholarship Team all three years. She was in Y-Teens where she was selected as the Y-Teen of the Year and Queen of the annual dance, and she was in the Future Teachers Club. She graduated from MHS in 1956 sixth in her class of 90 students. 

After high school, Sue worked and attended college classes at the Celina branch of Ohio Northern University, hoping to become a tutor. She was selected to the Iota Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, a national honor society in education. She graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in History and Elementary Education. Newly appointed St. Marys Schools Superintendent, Frank Dennings, asked whether her handicap would affect her ability to teach, Sue replied, “What handicap?” She was hired and received high marks from students and fellow teachers. She was a finalist for the Outstanding Young Educator Award for 1971-72 and 1972-73, winning in 1973. She wrote, “I had lived such a normal life even with the handicap that … I decided I was headed for a full life to include everything I could cram into it with no excuses because of the handicap. I didn’t want to be considered a superior handicapped teacher. I wanted to be a superior teacher who happened to have a handicap.” While teaching at McBroom, Sue earned a Master of History at Wright State University in 1973, and she was recognized as one of the Outstanding Young Women of America in 1973.

In 1972, Sue launched a program to employ the disabled. She chaired the Auglaize-Mercer Employ the Handicapped Committee, attended the President’s Committee on Employ the Handicapped in Washington, and she was named by Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes as a delegate to the White House conference on Handicapped Individuals. Sue served as an Adjunct Professor at Wright State University Lake Campus and taught at Camp Inquire, a summer program for gifted learners. She was the President of the St. Marys Shakespeare Club, President of the St. Marys Educational Association, a state delegate to the White House Conference on Disabilities, on the committee for the Ohio Committee for the Employment of People with Disabilities, helped establish the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame, served on the Advisory Committee for the Ohio White House Conference on Library and Information Science, The Advisory Council of the Women’s Services Division of the Ohio Bureau of Employment, the Easter Seal annual campaign, and the Ohio Reading Association. Sue retired from teaching in 1997. She passed away on February 28, 2012, and was laid to rest at Elm Grove Cemetery.

For her excellence as a superior teacher, for her tireless advocacy on behalf of the handicapped, and for decades of inspiring St. Marys students, M. Sue Thompson is inducted into the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation Hall of Fame for Service to St. Marys City Schools.