Susan Anderson-Freed, Works from 1988-2011

Collection

Identifier: 14-3: Anderson-Freed, Susan

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection includes biographical information, including an oral history interview, about Susan and materials related to her time at Illinois Wesleyan University.

This collection is organized into four series:

1. Biographical materials, 2007-2012

2. IWU Computer Science course materials, 1988-2007 (comprising the bulk of the collecting)

3. Computer Science departmental related correspondence, 1995-1999

4. Disk-based media

Dates

Works from 1988-2011

Creator

Anderson-Freed, Susan (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Dr. Susan Anderson-Freed was hired to teach Sociology, with an emphasis on social statistics, at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1977. At the end of her first year, she was asked to teach a computer programming course. Dr. Anderson-Freed returned to school and received her M.S. in Computer Science Engineering in 1986 from Bradley University. She received Bradley's Outstanding Master's Student award in recognition of her work. During that time, she took classes in computer programming languages including Fortran, C++, Assembly Programming Language, Pascal, MS-Basic, LISP, UNIX, and Web Graphics. With this knowledge, Dr. Anderson-Freed created the Computer Sciences department at IWU and served as its first Chair in 1986.

Between 1977 and her retirement in 2010, Dr. Anderson-Freed taught 30 different courses in computer programming languages and data structures as well as introductory courses in information technology and computer hardware. She wrote several computer science textbooks, most notably Fundamentals of Data Structures in C (first edition 1993) which has been translated into five languages: Korean, Chinese, French, Italian, and German. Anderson-Freed left teaching due to the effects of cancer treatments she was receiving and died on November 4, 2012. A long-time knitting enthusiast, she used the time of her treatments to design patterns and published two books on the subjects. Proceeds from these volumes, which have already been translated into several languages, are designated for the Community Cancer Center, Normal, Illinois.