Susan P. (Punzel) Conner

Susan Punzel Conner

Susan Jaye (Punzel) Conner of Albion, Michigan passed away on November 28, 2020. She was 73 years old.

Susan was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the second daughter of Mabel (Zellhoefer) and Ferdinand Frederick Punzel. She is preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her husband of fifty-two years, Ronald J. Conner, a sister, Betsy Ann Hunter, and a niece Nicole Parris and nephew Jeffrey Griffis residing in Georgia and North Carolina.

She was reared in Madison, Wisconsin until 1959 when her family moved south due to her father's health--a long-term injury from World War II. She graduated from H.V. Jenkins High School in 1965 and from Armstrong State College, magna cum laude, in 1969. At Armstrong, she was twice awarded the "Silver A" for her work in student government, the debate team, the college newspaper, and the Masquers. After college, she taught for three years in junior high in Savannah, Georgia.

In 1972, she began her master's and doctoral studies at the Institute for Napoleon and the French Revolution at Florida State University. She was awarded an NDEA Fellowship and other grants, and spent nearly six months in France on her dissertation research on a Napoleonic noblewoman. She then went on to a distinguished academic career first as a tenured professor at Tift College in Forsyth, Georgia, and then at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan where she was named Professor of History emerita and joined the ranks of the administration as Associate Dean of the College of Humanities, Social & Behavioral Science. She continued her career as Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, and Provost and Professor of History at Albion College in Albion, Michigan from which she retired in 2014.

Throughout her career, she published a book The Age of Napoleon (2004), and numerous essays and chapters on topics in military history, women's and gender history, social and intellectual history, prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as biographical entries in a number of historical dictionaries. Most recently she published on Prostitution in Paris according to the Paul Kinsie Reports (1924-1926) for United Nations Historical Series, no. 2 (2017). She was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award and Provost's Award for Research at Central Michigan University, a Civilian Service Medal from the U.S. Department of the Army, and the Legion of Merit Award from the International Napoleonic Society. She was a director of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era and on the Board of the Napoleonic Historical Society.

Locally, she was on the Curriculum Committee of the Albion Area Lifelong Learners where she also served as instructor, the Sister City Committee, the Lions Club, and a life member of the American Association of University Women.

A private family committal service will be held at Fort Custer National Cemetery, Augusta, Michigan. To leave a personal message age sign the online guest book, please visit https//www.kempffuneralhome.com

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the Kempf Family Funeral Homes and Cremation Services, 723 US Hwy 27 N, Marshall, MI 49068