Schultz enjoys work roles
Staff writer
Born Susan Friesen, the youngest child and only daughter of Ted and Florence Friesen of Hillsboro, Susan said she enjoyed being the only girl.
Raised in Hillsboro, she graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1972. After graduation she moved to Hutchinson to attend beauty school. In March of 1973, she graduated from beauty school and moved back to live in Hillsboro.
In March of 1973, she began working for LaVada Hagen. In January of 1974, she began working at Arnold's Beauty Shop, owned and operated by Doris Arnold.
In April 1974, she married Harold Schultz, and Susan continued to work full time at the beauty shop.
They had their first child, Scott, in 1978 and their second, Tracy, in 1981.
Scott now lives in Lehigh and is an auto technician in McPherson. Tracy and her husband, Ryan Hefley, live in El Dorado, and she works at the EduCare Center as a preschool teacher.
Susan continued to work as a hairdresser but only on a part-time basis.
From 1987 to 1989 she worked one or two days a week in Halstead, in addition to her part-time job at the beauty shop in Hillsboro.
"I helped out a friend, who owned a shop in Halstead when she needed help," Susan said.
Susan still is licensed by the State of Kansas and has to re-certify every two years to keep her license current.
In January 1990, she began working part time for Ken Meisinger at the American Family Insurance office in Hillsboro.
"I started off doing some of everything, mostly secretary and receptionist duties," she said, "like answering the phone, filing, and customer service kinds of things."
Susan then received her license from the State of Kansas to sell insurance — property and casualty first, then life and health. She later became a licensed office manager Meisinger agency in Hillsboro. She must re-certify every two years.
Her additional duties now include price quoting of auto, homeowners, life and health supplement insurance to customers, along with informing customers of changes in policies and vehicle coverage. Susan also handles turning in claims, doing daily filing, taking customer payments in the office, sorting the mail, and filling out applications and entering the information in the computer.
In November of 2000, Meisinger relocated and Jayson Hanschu moved from Wichita to the Hillsboro office.
"Jayson still kept me on at the office on a full-time basis, so I had a different boss, but stayed in the same building and with the same company," Susan said. "I was very fortunate and grateful for that."
Susan continues to do hair on a part-time basis and has done so for 29 years.
Again, her bosses have changed at the shop, but she is still in the same building, doing what she loves — styling and fixing hair.
She has had many clients throughout her years of being a hairdresser.
"I like the one-on-one contact," she said. "I do hair for a variety of ages, but my favorite are the older clients."
"Sometimes I wonder about why I still do it, especially when I have to be there at 7 a.m. I guess I keep doing what I started out doing and that's fixing hair."
Susan said her hobbies are reading, especially fiction and biographies, sewing, crocheting, bowling, playing golf, and doing her Creative Memories projects.
She is a member of First Mennonite Church. She has been a member of the HHS Booster Club since its inception, a member of the Hillsboro golf Association, and has been accepted as a mentor for "Big" in school of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Marion County.
