A Jubilant Life:
GTU Alum Carroll Saussy Reflects on Learning, Art, and Giving Back

by Kris Jachens, GTU Development Manager

	Carroll Saussy

Dr. Saussy was the GTU’s Alum of the Year in 1993, and has been a long time contributor to the annual fund. She says that the GTU’s ecumenical character makes it a place where people can think, believe, and talk about religion differently than they can in some theological institutions. “The world needs more of that,” she states.

Dr. Saussy has taught religion and pastoral theology in high schools, colleges, and seminaries. The Emerita Howard Chandler Robbins Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care at Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C., her three books have focused on God images and self-esteem, anger, and her most recent pastoral interest, aging. Since her retirement (or jubilation, as she calls it), her pastoral work has centrally been about aging. She volunteers at retirement homes and teaches workshops at churches and health related institutions near her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

But Dr. Saussy’s true passion since jubilation is art. In 1999 she took her first art class at a local community college and fell in love. She spends much of her days working in her favorite media—watercolor and pastel, as well as Asian brush painting. “Painting is more than a hobby,” she says. “It’s a passion that can be totally absorbing and tremendously fulfilling.” Her work, displayed on her website www.csaussy.net , represents a wide range of subjects from koi and crabs to still life and landscapes. She has plans for a series of paintings focusing on steeples in the landscape, what she calls churchscapes. “There are no limits to what I’ll try in art.”

Though her life has changed focus in many ways, Dr. Saussy will always be grateful for her time at the GTU. In the three short years of her Ph.D. program, she established ties to the people and ideals of the GTU community that remain strong after nearly 30 years. She sums it up nicely with this thought: “In a world where narrow religious passions are all too prevalent, the GTU is a great place to study and deserves the support of its alums.”

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