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THE AMERICAN CLUB
JUL / AUG 2016
MEMBER
FEATURE
Susan Studebaker-Rutledge’s love affair with Singapore began
decades ago in 1975. She was only 12 years old then, and had no
idea how entwined with this little island she would eventually become.
The 1970s
Susan moved to this sleepy port city from Colorado so that her single
mom could work at the Singapore American School (SAS) as the
school’s Learning Disabilities Specialist. Together with her brother,
the three of them lived on Namly Avenue. “My mom had a special
ed. school for 30-50 kids at the Air Force Academy and loved that
lifestyle and moving around,” says Susan. “So she started looking
overseas. She was very ahead of her time.”
As destiny would have it, across the street on Namly lived another
family with a 14-year-old son named Greg. Both Susan’s and Greg’s
moms were best friends and the families did everything together,
often dining at each other’s houses, playing and socializing together
at The Club, of which both families were Members.
Susan and Greg attended SAS, with Greg two years ahead of Susan.
“He graduated beforeme and went [to college] somewhere in Texas,
which is where they were from. And I chose Oklahoma because
that’s where my family was from. Two years later he decided to
change majors and that major was at my school, so he moved up
to Oklahoma State.
That
is where the romance started,” she laughs.
Getting Back to Asia
After getting married, Susan and Greg worked in the US for several
years, but their dream was always to return to Asia. In 1997, they
got their chance. “It was a conscious decision; we wanted to move
back to Southeast Asia,” says Susan. “And Greg’s company got us
into the Philippines. That was fine with us because we wanted to be
overseas. But the whole time we knew, we wanted
this
island, not
that
island.”
They lived in Manila until 2003, when the company decided to move
its operations to Singapore. They were thrilled to be headed home
to the little red dot.
As they settled back into life on the island, Greg reactivated his Club
membership (which he had bought while on a college internship
here), and, together with their daughter Asia, they slipped happily
back into Singapore life and the American community they had
grown up in. “She [Asia] came in [The Club] at two years old and sat
on the GM’s lap the first day,” remembers Susan with fondness.
ASingapore Love Story