Susan McKenzie Is a Major Force in Many Fifth Avenue Programs

By Bob Brennan

Susan McKenzie is a native New Yorker -- born at Doctor's Hospital, and baptized at First Presbyterian Church.  During her high school years she was a hospital volunteer, and then went off to Colby Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire where she majored in Medical Secretarial Sciences and Technology.  After graduation she returned to Manhattan to begin work in Special Hematology at New York Hospital where she had done a training elective.

She is currently supervisor of the Bone Marrow and Cell Marker Immunophenotyping Diagnostic Laboratories at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  "I feel blessed," she says, "to have such a interesting and challenging job in a cancer hospital known for it's excellence, and to be able to collaborate with an entire team of caring and dedicated people.  Particularly rewarding is the opportunity to offer comfort and understanding to patients and their families (often at the request of our pastors)." 

One interesting stop in her career path was serving a year with Project Hope aboard the hospital ship, SS Hope, in Tunisia where she worked with and taught counterparts and students in hospitals on shore and in the ship's 104-bed hospital.

A business partner of her father's was a FAPC member, and he suggested that Susan visit the church one Sunday.  She enjoyed the service, started attending regularly and became a member in 1986.   "FAPC has allowed me to engage in ministry and service in numerous ways and to touch many lives.  This wonderful diverse faith community is my family.  At Meals on Heels and through serving on boards I have met my closest and dearest friends and have formed deep and lasting relationships."

Susan has served as a Deacon (vice moderator, Visitation chair) and Elder (Worship and Outreach Committees, Ministerial Candidates Committee chair).  At Meals on Heels, she is a steering committee member and weekly coordinator.  She is a long-time usher/greeter, captain and team leader for pledge campaigns and the Crossroads Campaign.  She was also on the events committee for the Bicentennial reunion of officers.

Being a part of the Ministerial Candidates committee has been particularly important to Susan, "It has given me the opportunity to provide leadership in the personal care and support of the inquirers and candidates as they explore the process of a call to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. This involvement has allowed me to grow in my faith and deepen my own understanding."

A heavy load of professional activity and church work doesn't keep Susan from her favorite things -- opera, the NY Giants, and traveling.  She has visited at least 40 countries including regular trips to France with a small group of friends, a safari in Kenya and Tanzania, and Nile boat trip in Egypt. She had the opportunity to take Pan Am I when a passenger could stop anywhere on the route for one airfare, enabling her to see Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan, as well as much of South America and the Galapagos Islands.  The next places on her itinerary: Israel, Norway, Sweden, Costa Rica and New Zealand.

Susan McKenzie's contributions to Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church are many.  She is a very special person whom I am honored to call my friend.