Susan was the first born to Lauerence and Aleta Hastings at Methodist Hospital in Lubbock, Tx on 2/14/1959. As far as she was concerned, Valentine's Day did not exist, it was her birthday!

Her first years were spent on a cotton farm in Hail Center, TX until moving to Lubbock where she attended 1st grade. The family relocated to Newton, KS in 1966 and then again to Mentor, KS in 1971. She graduated from Southeast of Saline High School in 1977 where she was active in music, forensics and Drill Team. She also found her love of language with her French teacher and went on to become fluent in French.

After high school, Susan attended Bethany College in Lindsborg, KS and majored in business. She left Bethany the summer of 1980 to tour for a year with Lutheran Youth Encounters, a Lutheran youth music ministry. At the end of the year tour, she accepted a position with the head office in Minneapolis, MN as their bookkeeper.

In 1986, Susan earned her BA in Business Administration from the University of St Thomas and graduated cum laude. She went on to earn her MA in International Leadership in 2016 and was working on her Ed.D in Education, Leadership and Learning until the fall semester of 2019.

In 1992, Susan accepted a position with St Paul Companies, now Travelers Insurance, as the Reverse Flow Underwriting Manager. She was the US Coordinator for the European network and the primary contact for the Japanese and Korean partners where she traveled regularly. Susan's highly effective leadership style and experience earned her many awards and accommodations within the company.

Susan retired from the business world in 1997 and took a year's sabbatical to explore her love of writing. She wrote a novel that was accepted by a publisher and was in the process of editing that novel and was already started on a sequel. Her plans were to write a trilogy.

Susan reentered the working class as a Front End Team Leader for Whole Foods Market until 2004. From there, she accepted a position as Registrar with United Theological Seminary through 2015. While there, she worked with the VA students as the School Certifying Official and with the international students as the Primary Designated School Official for SEVIS. She was also the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act FERPA officer.

Susan was co-chair of the education committee for the Minnesota International NGO Network for 2016. Other volunteer work Susan was involved with was Land Stewardship Project, WWOOF-USA, American Refugee Committee with ALIGHT, Feed My Starving Children and Great River Greening.

In 2018, Susan began having difficult health issues and was diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica. NMO is a rare autoimmune disease that affects everything. She relocated to Kansas in June 2019 and resided at full-care facilities until her passing.

Susan is preceded in death by her father, R Lauerence Hastings and her mother Aleta R Wilson Hastings. She is survived in death by her sister Sonia Schmidt, brother and sister-in-law Michael and Pauline Hastings, and sister Cindy Morales. Susan had 13 nieces and nephews, 4 great nephews, 3 God children and many friends and extended family.

She will be missed!

There will be a memorial service on Saturday, September 7, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at Affordable Cremations Plus, 7920 W Kellogg Drive Suite 200 Wichita, Ks 67209.