Lawrence Presbyterian Manor resident joins Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame

For as long as she can recall, newspapers have been a part of Susanne Shaw’s life.

“My father spent 50 years on the news staff of a small Kansas daily,” she remembered. “I wanted to deliver newspapers, but girls couldn’t do that in those days so I put a paper bag on my bicycle, folded old issues and tossed them onto front porches in my neighborhood.”

While delivering newspapers may have been frowned upon in those days, opportunities for women were changing. Over the course of her career, Shaw worked for newspapers as far away as Tallahassee, Florida and as close to home as Coffeyville, Kansas. Her true calling, however, was as a journalism professor at the University of Kansas.

“The students were the best part of teaching,” she shared. “I left for other journalism opportunities once or twice, but I always came back for the students.”

During her time at KU, Shaw also served as Executive Director for Accreditation for Journalism Education.

Shaw was inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame at the University of Kansas in 2023.

A second generation resident of Lawrence Presbyterian Manor (her mother also called The Manor ‘home’), Shaw continues to be passionate about journalism and young people who are planning to pursue a career in the field she’s loved since she was a little girl in Wellington, Kansas!