Susan Walker Fitzgerald

Susan Grimes Walker (May 9, 1871 – January 20, 1943) is best known for her long commitment to women's suffrage, and for her involvement in progressive political organizations. In 1923, she became one of the first two women elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Biography She was born on May 9, 1871, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Rear Admiral John Grimes Walker, USN and Rebecca White Pickering. Her father was a Civil War veteran, having served at the Siege of Vicksburg, inter alia. Her mother was from the prominent Pickering family of Salem, Massachusetts. She was a direct descendant of Timothy Pickering, John Pickering, and Henry White Pickering.

Following the advice and encouragement of her cousin Alice Gould who graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1889, she enrolled at Bryn Mawr and graduated with a degree in political science and history in 1893. During her time at Bryn Mawr, she founded the Student Government Association and served as her class president. Following her graduation, she worked, as secretary to M. Carey Thomas - from 1893 to 1894 when Thomas was dean, and from 1894 to 1895 after Thomas became Bryn Mawr's president. Sylvia M. Donaldson was elected the same year as the first female Republican. Susan served for one term from 1923 to 1925.

She died in 1943.

Writings Women in the Home (1908) What is a Democracy? (1910) Have We a Democracy? (1913)

Archive A large collection of archival material relating to her life is housed at the Bryn Mawr College Library.