This scholarship was established in May 2022 by Sue’s husband, James. It is awarded to students studying in the Knowlton School who have an interest in city and regional planning.
Bio provided by James Farmer, September 2024.
After my wife Sue Smith Farmer died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2021, I decided that the best way to honor her was to establish a scholarship at Ohio State in her name. Sue grew up in Ohio and, after graduating from the Western College for Women, earned her Master’s in City and Regional Planning from The Ohio State University in 1975. She was a Buckeye through and through. We met at OSU’s MCRP program when I was working on a dual degree in law and city planning. Although I ended up pursuing a legal career, much of which was spent in-house with the Borden Company and later with the Taft Law Firm, I’m fond of saying that my MCRP was my best investment since that is where I met Sue.
After spending a few years with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Sue spent almost a quarter of a century as the Chief Loan Officer of the Ohio Water Development Authority. At her retirement celebration one of her former bosses noted with admiration that “Sue was the best employee he ever worked for.”
Although she was justly proud of her academic and career accomplishments, nothing pleased Sue more than her family. In addition to her husband, she is survived by Brian, a Vanderbilt graduate who lives in Columbus and Derrick, an Emory graduate who went on to become a Psychiatrist who now lives in Chicago with his wife and young daughter. In her spare time, Sue loved knitting, sewing and virtually any other craft you could think of, as well as spending weekends with her husband rehabbing our first home in Victorian Village and our second home in Lakeside, Ohio.
Nothing would make Sue happier than knowing that her life’s efforts will help another young woman find her own career in the field of City and Regional Planning.