Susan A. Wheelan of Provincetown died peacefully at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s.
She was born in Providence, RI, daughter of Daniel and Janice Wheelan. She was a graduate of Bay View Academy, Stonehill College and the University of Wisconsin/Madison with a Ph.D in Psychology. She was a professor of Psychological Studies and Faculty Director of the Center for the Study of Psychoeducational Processes at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for 28 years. In 1992 she received Temple University’s Great Teacher Award. In 1994 she organized the first International Kurt Lewin Conference at Temple University. She has been an invited speaker at Oxford University, Ireland, Israel, Sweden and the United States.
In her early career she worked as a clinical psychologist but soon turned her focus to the study of groups. She is the author of Facilitating Training Groups, Group Processes: A Developmental Perspective, Creating Effective Teams: A Guide for Members and Leaders, and Faculty Groups: From Frustration to Collaboration. She is the editor of the Handbook of Group Research and Practice and Co-Editor of The Lewin Legacy: Field Theory in Current Practice and Advances in Field Theory. She has also written over 60 research articles for publication. In 2015 she received Sage Publishing’s Cornerstone Author Award to celebrate her work as a mainstay in the discipline of group research and the lasting impact of her work.
She worked for many years as a consultant as president of GDQ Associates, Inc. She consulted and engaged in research projects with hospitals, school systems, prisons, corporations, and non-profit organizations, such as the Provincetown AIDS Support Group, all over the United States and Europe.
She leaves behind her wife of thirty two years, Jane Winter, her daughter, Renaya Furtick Wheelan, her daughter-in-law Petrena Young Wheelan, her grandchildren, Jeremiah, Noah and Genesis, and her siblings Daniel Wheelan, Mary Pat Wheelan, sister-in-law Strong Oak LeFebre, Christopher Wheelan, and George Wheelan, nephews, nieces, many beloved cousins and her amazing acquired family of friends.
Susan spent many summers as a child on the beaches of Scarborough, RI with her large family and was drawn to Provincetown for that same love of the ocean. Susan was the most gregarious person, was a great story teller. She taught her classes with insight but also laughter. She prized the seriousness and the silliness of life. She played tennis at the Provincetown Tennis Club, went fishing in Provincetown Bay, loved going to see the sunsets at Herring Cove beach. She loved music, sang in choirs and bars and was a dancer with her own humorous, soulful style. She had a passion for social justice and worked politically her whole life to change the world for the better.
This, in her own words, is the last paragraph of Group Processes: A Developmental Perspective.
A Final Thought
Creating healthy and effective groups capable of responding to new challenges is perhaps the most important task facing the human community of today. Living in peace- in fact, living at all – depends on our ability to live and work together effectively. No system is exempt from the dynamics described in this book. Senate subcommittees, research teams, sports teams, church groups, work teams, and larger social systems are all affected by these natural processes. Our social world is made up of millions of groups struggling to interact effectively, and these millions of groups are interdependent. No one individual, group, institution, or nation is responsible for creating a habitable social environment. They all are. We need to increase our understanding of the dynamics of the systems in which we live and our efforts to apply what we already know in the groups of our everyday lives. Our very lives may depend on it. Good luck to us all.
A celebration of Susan’s life is planned for next summer in Provincetown. Donations can be made in her name to the Alzheimer’s Family Support Center of Cape Cod. www.alzheimerscapecod.com