Susan Miller Dorsey

Susan Almira Miller was born in Penn Yan, New York,{{Cite news |date=1936-12-30 |title=Los Angeles School Named after Native of Penn Yan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/finger-lakes-times-los-angeles-school-na/175502835/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=Finger Lakes Times |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of James Miller and Hannah Benedict Miller. She graduated from Vassar College in 1877, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa there.{{Cite news |last=Cage |first=Crete |author-link=Crete Cage |date=1938-02-13 |title=Dr. Susan Dorsey Typifies Pioneer Spirit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-dr-susan-dorsey-t/175479272/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=58 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Dorsey taught at Wilson College and at Vassar before marrying and moving to California with her husband in the 1880s.{{Cite news |date=1944-02-17 |title=Susan Miller Dorsey Feted at Birthday Breakfast by Faculty |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-southwest-wave-susan-miller-dorsey-f/175481098/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=The Southwest Wave |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} She taught classics at Los Angeles High School, beginning in 1896. By 1902, she was working as a school administrator. She was named an assistant superintendent in 1913,{{Cite news |date=1946-02-06 |title=Dr. Susan Dorsey, Retired Head of City Schools, Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-dr-susan-dorsey/175502240/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=13 |via=Newspapers.com}} and in 1920, Dorsey became the first female superintendent of Los Angeles City Schools. She would serve in that capacity until her retirement in 1929.

Dorsey was a member of the board of trustees at Scripps College. In 1937 she spoke to the prohibitionist Women's Law Observance Association and denounced realist literature that dealt with or included "the seamy things of life".{{Cite news |last=Cage |first=Crete |author-link=Crete Cage |date=1937-02-04 |title=Dr. Dorsey Denounces Realism in Literature |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49596499/dr-dorsey-denounces-realism-in/ |access-date=2020-04-26 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=26 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1937, Susan Miller Dorsey High School in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles was dedicated in her honor. It was an adult high school in the 1950s.{{Cite news |date=1954-06-10 |title=Adult Schools Give Diplomas to 291 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-southwest-wave-adult-schools-give-di/175479060/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=The Southwest Wave |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Susan Miller married the Rev. Patrick William Dorsey, and moved to California with him when he became minister of a Baptist church in Los Angeles.{{Cite news |date=1887-06-20 |title=First Baptist Church; Rev. P. W. Dorsey Preaches His Sixth Annual Sermon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-herald-first-baptist-church/175503301/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=Los Angeles Herald |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1890-08-11 |title=The New Baptist Church |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-the-new-bapti/175503138/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} They had a son, Paul Dorsey. Her husband took their son and left her, and Los Angeles, in 1895; both professional and personal misconduct were rumored to be involved, and the Dorseys were eventually divorced.{{Cite news |date=1895-07-23 |title=He Seeks Pastures New; Rev. P. W. Dorsey Again Leaves Los Angeles |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-herald-he-seeks-pastures-new/175503459/ |access-date=2025-06-29 |work=Los Angeles Herald |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1895-06-21 |title=Fled from Investigation; The Rev. P. W. Dorsey Has Left for Other Fields |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-herald-fled-from-investigati/175514722/ |access-date=2025-06-29 |work=Los Angeles Herald |pages=10 |via=Newspapers.com}} She died in 1946, at the age of 88, in Los Angeles.{{Cite news |date=1946-02-08 |title=Chronicle of a woman |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-chronicle-of-a-woman/175480719/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=Daily News |pages=34 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Dorsey Hall, a dormitory at Scripps College, is named for her. A 1928 oil portrait of Dorsey by John Hubbard Rich, which was de-accessioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the 1980s, was recovered in 2007 by Dorsey High School alumna and former teacher Janet Horwitz Colman.{{Cite news |last=Rasmussen |first=Cecilia |date=2007-05-13 |title=Dorsey devotee the picture of determination |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-dorsey-devotee-the/175479978/ |access-date=2025-06-28 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=209 |via=Newspapers.com}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071109054025/http://www.soroptimist-losangeles.com/tributes/dorsey/index.htm Soroptimist International of Los Angeles]

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title=Superintendent of the
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years=1920–1929|

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{{Los Angeles Unified School District}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorsey, Susan Miller}}

Category:1857 births

Category:1946 deaths

Category:Los Angeles Unified School District superintendents

Category:People from Penn Yan, New York

Category:Vassar College alumni

Category:Baptists from New York (state)

Category:Educators from New York (state)

Category:20th-century American women educators