Led by Suzanne Ritter
Relating my experience attending Berea College, and finally finishing my degree at the age of 55. Berea College was founded in 1855 as the first integrated college in the south, and the first to accept women. It has been tuition-free since 1892. Most of the students, about 70%, are from Appalachia—where nearly one in every five people live below the poverty line. And that recruiting pipeline in Appalachia produces a rather diverse class – more than 40 percent of the student body identify as racial minorities. It also accepts students from 70 different countries.
Suzanne Ritter was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She served in the Women’s Army Corps as a journalist and broadcaster at the end of the Vietnam War. She then married and moved to Germany as a military dependent, and had two children. After she divorced, she worked for the US Forces as an arts and crafts instructor and later with the US Air Force Public Affairs Office in Berlin. When the Berlin Wall came down and the Allies left Berlin, she went to work for the German state broadcaster, DW-TV as a speaker and documentary producer with their English language department. Ten years later, she returned to the US with her partner, Pam, and spent the next decade caring for Pam through her bout of multiple cancers. Pam recovered and Suzanne went back to college to finish her degree.
In the meantime, Suzanne’s grown children in Berlin had made her a grandmother. So when Pam retired from the Air Force, they returned to Berlin where Suzanne resumed her career with DW-TV and also worked as a voice-over actor. Finally, when Suzanne took mandatory retirement in 2021, she and Pam made the decision to return to the US, settling in Maine. After 30 years together, they looked for someone to officiate at their wedding and found Rev Kharma and the UUCB. They are now members of the church and settling into their new home in Topsham.
Music by Derek Herzer and Glenn Williams