Former ASU-Jonesboro professor, Dr. Mary Susan Power, died on August 9, 2021. Dr. Power taught at ASU-Jonesboro from 1968 until 2000, and she was honored
during the school’s centennial celebration in 2009-10 by the ASU Faculty Association as one of the First 100 Distinguished Faculty of the institution for her university service, as well as her impact on her field and her students. She was an active member of the Arkansas Political Science Association (ArkPSA), including serving on the Association’s executive board as president and vice president.
Mary Susan Power was born to Younger L. Power and Cleo Boock Power in Hazelton, Pennsylvania on July 5, 1935. The family moved to Ilion, New York, where her father was elected to three terms as mayor. Raised as a Lutheran, she converted to Roman Catholicism and was an active member of Blessed Sacrament church in Jonesboro.
Mary Susan Power earned a B.A. from Wells College, an M.A. from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Dr. Power taught at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville before moving to Jonesboro.
One of Dr. Power’s most prominent works of scholarship was the monograph “Before the Convention: Religion and the Founders” (1984, University Press of America), where she explored the connections between religious ideas and political philosophy, one of her key research interests.
She was an active member of the Craighead County Republican Party, and an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1972, 1976 and 1988.
Dr. Power’s parents and brother precede her in death. She is survived by her daughter Catherine and three grandchildren.