HILLSDALE – With the goal of making life better for citizens in their community, Doug and Susan French of Hillsdale have delved into their passion for children.
She was born in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and has lived in Lafayette and Indianapolis, Indiana. She spent her senior year and graduated from Tecumseh High School in Tecumseh and then graduated from Michigan State University in 1973, majoring in education.
She taught the mentally impaired in Alexandria, Virginia and those with learning disabilities in grades seven through 12.
She also taught third grade when the couple lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for a little over two and a half years.
“This was an experience of a lifetime,” French said. “We were able to travel outside the kingdom to several countries.”
The last 15 years of teaching involved working with her favorite age: those in pre-kindergarten.
Since she has two sisters and she’s 15 years older than one and nine years older than the other, she feels that was her first introduction to child care.
“Basically, I brought them up,” she said. “I did a lot of babysitting.”