Susan Hirt Hagen

Susan Ruth Hirt Hagen, 79, a prominent community leader and philanthropist, passed away at the Cleveland Clinic on June 15, 2015.

A fifth generation Erie resident, she was born on June 20, 1935, the daughter of Ruth Louise Peterson and Henry Orth Hirt, the co-founder in 1925 of Erie Insurance Exchange and Erie Indemnity Company, which have grown into the Erie Insurance Group. Her grandfather, Frank W. Hirt, also an entrepreneur, was the founder in the late 1890’s of the former Erie Mantel and Tile Co.

She attended Erie public schools and was a 1953 graduate of Academy High School. She received a B.A. degree from Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH in 1957 where she majored in Psychology/Sociology and English. She was a member of Chi Omega, Shifters and Psi Chi honor society. In 2011, Wittenberg awarded her the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for her lifetime of humanitarian work including the establishment at Wittenberg of the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Civic & Urban Engagement. She received the coveted “Alumni Citation” for community service from Wittenberg in 1982 and was nominated by Wittenberg and inducted into the “2012 Hall of Excellence” of the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges. She also attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania several summers, and earned an M.S. degree in Counseling from Gannon University in 1980, where she received their “Distinguished Alumni Award” in 1990.

She served on the Board of Trustees of Wittenberg University 1986-1998 and was named Trustee Emerita in 1998. She was also a former Trustee of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, appointed by Governor Dick Thornburgh, and a longtime member of the Council of Fellows at Penn State-Erie, The Behrend College.

For more than 25 years she was engaged as a consultant in conflict management and group relations, first as Program Coordinator for the Center for the Practice of Conflict Management founded by the late Dr. Irving Goldaber and then as Managing Partner of her own group relations consulting firm, Hagen, Herr & Peppin.

A recognized community leader with many “firsts” as a woman, she followed in the footsteps of several of her female forebearers. Her grandmother, Sarah Melhorn Hirt, was the first female juror in Erie County following women’s right to vote, and Mrs. Hagen’s aunt, Zoe Isabella Hirt, a highly respected public school teacher and principal, was the first psychologist in the Erie School District.

Mrs. Hagen was the first woman to serve on the Board of Directors of Erie Indemnity Company, as well as on the Boards of various subsidiaries of the Erie Insurance Group. Today Erie Insurance is one of the largest and highest rated property/casualty insurers in the country, as well as Erie County’s second largest employer and only Fortune 500 headquartered business. She succeeded her father on those Boards in 1980 and served 35 years until her death. For 48 years she has been a co-Trustee of the Company’s controlling shareholder, The H.O. Hirt Trusts.

In 1987, she was the first female to be elected President (now Chairman) of United Way of Erie County and served in various other leadership positions on the Board of Directors, including Chair of Planning and Allocations and Chair of the Hunger Task Force. In 1990 she received the “Alexis de Tocqueville Award” for community service from the United Way of Erie County. Additionally, she served on the Board of Directors of United Way of Pennsylvania, and on the Committee for Foundations of United Way of America. She also was the first female Board member of the Erie YMCA in 1979.

A fourth generation and lifelong Chautauquan, she served on the Board of Trustees of the historic Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua NY from 1991-99. In 1986, she and her husband were delegates to the first conference on U.S./Soviet relations sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution and the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute and held in Riga, Latvia under the auspices of the President’s Soviet Exchange Program of the U.S. Information Agency. A world traveler, she was also a member of the International Women in Society Delegation to India and Nepal in 1988, sponsored by the People to People Citizens’ Ambassador Program.

From her early employment as a case worker with the Cuyahoga County Child Welfare Department in Cleveland following college, she maintained a lifelong interest in children and families, particularly women’s issues and teenage pregnancy prevention. She was a founding Board member and principal sponsor of the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Organizational Research & Evaluation (CORE) at Penn State – Erie, The Behrend College and was an Advisory Board member and a major sponsor of the Erie County Network for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention.

She was an early Board member of Hospitality House for Women that transitioned into SafeNet to provide domestic violence services in Erie County. In 1999 with the opening of the SafeNet Center, which Mrs. Hagen was instrumental in supporting, she was given the first “Susan Hirt Hagen Award” that has been awarded since to those who have made an outstanding contribution to help stop interpersonal violence and promote wholeness and healing in the community.

Over the years she served on the Boards of Directors of many agencies and non-profit organizations including: Case Management Support Services (Past Chairman); Human Service Support Corporation (Past President); Single Parent Task Force of Erie County; Family Services Association; Human Services Coalition of Erie County (Founding member); Interchurch Ministries of NW Pennsylvania; American Association of University Women (AAUW of Erie); Erie Community Country Day School; and was appointed by the Erie County Executive to the Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MH/MR) Board of the Erie County Department of Human Services.

She served as a Trustee of the Erie Community Foundation from 1979 to 1989, including as its Secretary-Treasurer. For her service and commitment, the Foundation’s Board Room was named in her honor in 2008 and in 2009 she received the Foundation’s prestigious “Edward C. Doll Award.”

Additionally, she had served on the Boards of various other local, state and national organizations. She was a member and former Board member of the Junior League of Erie, where she served on all of its major committees. In 1987, she received their “Award for Community Service” and in 2010 the “Sustainer of the Year” award. She was a former Board member of the Erie Philharmonic, past President of its Auxiliary and a past Advisory Board member of the Arts Council of Erie.

She also had served as a Board member of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the Pennsylvania Commission for Women, and was appointed by former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford to the Board of the National Civilian Community Corps, a Division of AmeriCorps. She had served on the Advisory Committees for Senators Wofford and Arlen Spector for the appointments of Federal Court Judges and U.S. Attorneys for the Western District of Pennsylvania. She also had served on the Trial Court Nominating Commission for Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh 1980-82.

Among her many honors and awards, Mrs. Hagen was named the first “Woman of the Year” for community service in Erie County in 1975 during the International Women’s Year and received The Erie 80 “Award for Community Service” in 1987. She was listed in “498 Hard Working Women”, a Dictionary for Pennsylvanians in 1987 and was listed in “Who’s Who of American Women”.

In 2010, The Pennsylvania Society, meeting in Erie for the first time in its then 112 years, named her as only its 18th “Distinguished Citizen of the Commonwealth”. In 2011 she and her husband were recipients of the “Governor’s Patron of the Arts Award” from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

She was a lifelong member of Luther Memorial Church in Erie where her family was among the founding members.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death her brother, F. William Hirt. She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Thomas B. Hagen; a son, Jonathan Hirt Hagen (Rekha); a daughter Sarah Hagen McWilliams (Bruce); three grandchildren, Neena, Annika and Erik Hagen; and two nieces, Elizabeth Hirt Vorsheck (William) and Laurel A. Hirt.

Friends may call at Burton Westlake Funeral Home, 3801 West 26th St. (at Powell Ave.) on Thursday and Friday from 2-4pm and 6-8pm and are invited to funeral services on Saturday at 11am at Luther Memorial Church, 220 W. 11th St. with Revs. William Coleman and Charles Brock co-officiating.

Private Burial will be at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Erie. Memorials may be made to the Erie Community Foundation 459 W. 6th St. Erie, PA 16501, the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY 14772, CORE at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, 4701 College Drive, Erie, PA 16563 or to the charity of one’s choice.