Linda (Falk) Suter
Retired assistant dean and registrar
Professor emeritus of English
The Faculty/Staff Service Award honors a former faculty or staff member who left a legacy of community through his or her personal relationship with others.
Linda (Falk) Suter ended up at Bluffton by mistake. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with her master’s degree, Linda began sending out applications for teaching positions. She meant to send her credentials to Bethel College and addressed them to Bluffton instead. When she called Bluffton to apologize for her error, she was offered a position to teach English. That offer was the beginning of 32 years of service to Bluffton as a teacher, registrar and academic advisor.
The daughter of Russian immigrants to Canada, Linda joined Bluffton’s faculty in 1967 as an associate professor of English. In the summer of 1970, as faculty leader, Linda accompanied a group of 20 Bluffton students on a 10-week, study-work program to Bogota, Colombia. In 1980, she was appointed assistant dean and registrar, and she advised students up until her retirement in 1999.
While a staff member at Bluffton, Linda was awarded a Bluffton University Research Center grant. Her research project investigated Russian Mennonite writers and was later published in Mennonite Quarterly Review. As her first love was teaching, Linda continued teaching at least one course per semester while working as registrar.
Early in retirement, Linda taught German and English to GROB Systems employees in Bluffton. Currently she does translation work for the International Catholic Women’s Organization Caritas Christi.
Linda resides in Bluffton with her husband, Robert Suter, Bluffton professor emeritus of chemistry. They have two grown children, including Elizabeth (Suter ’91) Raeburn, a third-grade teacher at Bluffton Elementary School, and Dr. J. Peter Suter ’94, Bluffton associate professor of business.
