Susan Walker Fitzgerald

Susan Walker Fitzgerald
Susan Grimes Walker circa 1910
Born	Susan Walker May 9, 1871 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Died	January 20, 1943, aged 72
Nationality	American
Occupation	Legislator and Reformer
Known for	First Female Democrat to enter the Massachusetts House of Representatives

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.

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. 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.

Subsequently, Susan began working as the administrative head of Barnard College's first dormitory, Fiske Hall, in 1898. She was engaged to Richard Y. FitzGerald in July 1900 and the couple married on August 3, 1901. She took the name Susan Walker FitzGerald. Because men were not allowed into the dormitory, she changed jobs and served as head worker at the Richmond Hill Settlement House in New York City from 1901 to 1904. She was a prominent member of the first New York Child Labor Committee and was involved in establishing important child labor laws and in working for a compulsory education law. Richard Y. FitzGerald was an attorney who graduated from the University of California in 1895 and Harvard Law School in 1898 and practiced primarily in New York and Boston. He was the son of Nancy Rose McCoy and Adolphus Leigh Fitzgerald, elected to the Supreme Court of Nevada in November 1900. Richard's family owned silver mines and a water works plant in Eureka, Nevada as well as a large ranch named Clear Creek in Redding, California.

They had four children: Anne (born 1902), Rebecca Pickering (1906), Susan (1908), and Richard Leigh (1914). All three of the daughters attended Bryn Mawr. Anne received her A.B. degree in 1924, Rebecca in 1926, and Susan in 1929. Richard attended Princeton University. Anne went on to earn a master's degree from Radcliffe College, Rebecca earned the Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, and Susan earned an M.A. from Middlebury College.