A Lifetime of Love, Fostered by Learning
From the March 2011 issue of Our Moment, the UConn Foundation's e-newsletter.
Bernie and Susanne Brennan Perella ’60 met at a friend’s house on, as he remembers it now, “an inconspicuous Saturday in November.” Seeing that Bernie was visually impaired and getting ready to leave, Susanne offered to walk out with him.
“Little did I know then that I would walk with her for life,” he recalls today.
Although the couple had vastly different career paths—Susanne in a series of impressive positions within the library sciences and Bernie in the National Security Agency—their love for each other grew throughout their 30-year relationship and marriage by reading and learning together.
Today, Bernie Perella is memorializing Susanne’s life with a $125,000 gift to support scholarships for students studying English, with an emphasis on those preparing for careers in teaching, library sciences, government or writing. A precise, analytical speaker, Perella fears that modern society is losing regard for pedagogy and knowledge.
“Unless we have excellent teachers, our education system means nothing, and I think we’re at a dangerous spot right now with how education is regarded,” he says. “We cannot vilify the teaching profession and expect people to want to pursue it. In my opinion, the real investment bankers in our society are the teachers, not the ones on Wall Street.”
He also worries about the state of the written word.
“Local and investigative journalism have been decimated by new technologies. However, the need for strong writing is as great as ever. If you are going to be successful, you need to speak well, listen well and clearly write your thoughts.”
Susanne loved reading—she read several books a week, plus newspapers and magazines. In fact, reading brought them together. She would sit, read to him and they would discuss the issues of the day. They would also listen to the television together, competing to see who could identify more grammatical errors. Balancing Bernie’s career in national intelligence, Susanne sought to fill his life with her quest for peace and tranquility. The couple traveled extensively, visiting nearly every national park and many countries. Susanne’s innate curiosity for life followed them everywhere.
“We would go on hikes and she would always bring her books about birds or trees or nature with us. When we honeymooned in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, she would describe what we were seeing,” he says. “I tell people that in the song, ‘America the Beautiful,’ there is a reference to ‘purple mountain majesties.’ I saw them through her eyes.”
Throughout Susanne’s career, culminating as the library director for the United States Department of the Treasury, she served as a mentor and teacher for many young people, encouraging their education and telling Bernie each night about their triumphs. She would seek to hire the underprivileged, the hearing-impaired, or anyone she felt could be boosted by exposure to knowledge and learning.
As breast cancer began to take Susanne’s health, the couple discussed how to leave a legacy to future generations. They knew that supporting education was the perfect match for their passion.
After visiting UConn to complete a pledge agreement and memorialize Susanne with the gift, Bernie says that he took some time on the train back to Washington, D.C. to reflect and write a simple note to himself.
It read, “Susanne lives on.”
“It was one of the happier days I’ve had in a while,” he adds. “It gives me pleasure to know that the gift will bear fruit in the future through the accomplishments of students. I hope that those who benefit from this scholarship will gain appreciation in their own life of the need to return something to society.”
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