Dr. Suzanne Ahn, neurologist, social activist, 51
Scott Brady
06/23/2003
By JOE SIMNACHER / The Dallas Morning News
Dr. Suzanne Ahn, a neurologist and longtime Dallas social activist,
died early Sunday of lung cancer at her Dallas home. She was 51.
Dr. Ahn leaves an impressive and far-ranging legacy, practicing
medicine in Dallas for 15 years, championing rights for women and
Asian Americans, and taking an active role in business and politics.
"Suzanne Ahn was a remarkable woman," said former Gov. Ann Richards,
who appointed Dr. Ahn to the Air Quality Control Board in 1991. "She
cared about her family, her community and the state of Texas."
In 1983, Dr. Ahn became the youngest physician and the second woman to
be appointed to the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners.
She was a generous contributor to women and minority candidates, and
she lobbied Congress to restore discrimination protection to
Filipino-American and American Indians in Alaska, who were not
specifically covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Dr. Ahn was founder and first president of the Dallas chapter of the
American Medical Women's Association and helped found the
Asian-American Forum, a leadership group.
"Suzanne has been on the cutting edge of change for everything of
significance for women, for Asian Americans and for the
underprivileged in this community, since she arrived here," said
Vivian Castleberry, women's advocate and retired features editor of
the Dallas Times Herald.
"She did more in 50 years than most people would do if they lived to
be 150," said longtime friend and fellow activist Virginia B.
Whitehill.
Dr. Ahn was an active mother of two children and held a seat on the
board of trustees at The Hockaday School.
Typical of her take-charge character, she spent the last several
months of her life preparing her children and friends for life without
her, Ms. Castleberry said.
Active until the end
In April 2002, Dr. Ahn was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. The
news was especially shocking because Dr. Ahn had never smoked. Her
only symptoms were a slight cough and underlying fatigue.
She continued her work for women's and Asian rights after her
diagnosis.
After her children, her biggest concern was that she had received her
terminal prognosis with so much left undone.
"I realize now that compared to incurable lung cancer, all the
challenges of my past were so easy," she said in an August speech. "If
I had only known if it was this easy, I would have done more, taken
more risks."
As cancer and therapy sapped her energy, Dr. Ahn renewed her efforts.
She and her husband, Dr. Steven Hays, gave $100,000 to support a
Dallas Women's Foundation endowment campaign. The money will help pay
speakers' fees at the foundation's annual fund-raising luncheon.
In December , she protested discrimination against Asian Americans at
a Plano bookstore.
"I just had to crawl out of bed," Dr. Ahn said. "It was a miracle that
I made it."
Phillip Shinoda, founder of the DFW Asian American Leadership Forum,
said Dr. Ahn had a profound effect on the Asian American community.
"From picketing a bookstore discriminating against Asian Americans to
testifying before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission on the Asian
political fund-raising scandal, she was a potent voice for civil
rights and social justice," Dr. Shinoda said.
Humble beginnings
Dr. Ahn's family tree is rooted in the poverty of South Korea. The
village where her father grew up took up a collection so he could
attend high school. Two years after she was born in Pusan, South
Korea, her father received a medical residency to study in New York in
1954.
With some contacts in the Eisenhower administration, her father was
able to bring his family to America in 1959. They settled in
Booneville, Ark., population 2,000.
At age 7, she learned to speak fluent English in a matter of months.
Forty years later she shrugged off the accomplishment, saying children
are quick students.
When Dr. Ahn was in the sixth grade, the family moved to Tyler, where
she became a cheerleader and a drill team officer. She also devoured
biographies at the public library. She was crowned East Texas Junior
Miss during her senior year at Robert E. Lee High School. Her next
stop was the University of Texas at Austin, where she was Phi
Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in
biology.
Finding her path
Then, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in
Dallas, Dr. Ahn became active in women's rights. She joined others in
seeking improvements in the way women were treated as students and
faculty.
"She was very concerned that women were being excluded," said Mary
Esther Gaulden, one of Dr. Ahn's professors at UT Southwestern who was
active in the women's movement. "She got right into the spirit of it,
because nothing is impossible to Suzanne."
The student and professor became lifelong friends.
"She sort of latched on to me because she realized I was serious about
this women's business," Dr. Gaulden said. "I liked her because she was
very personable and obviously very bright. I always encouraged these
women students not to take any guff off anybody."
Dr. Gaulden later helped steer Dr. Ahn into neurology, after she
graduated from UT Southwestern in 1977. Dr. Ahn started a residency in
radiology, Dr. Gaulden's specialty, but found her niche in neurology.
In 1981, Dr. Ahn was the first president of the American Medical
Women's Association chapter in Dallas.
The next year, she completed her residency in neurology and was
certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She set
up a private, solo practice.
"There weren't a lot of job offers [for women] from established
neurology practices or established physicians," she said.
In 1983, Dr. Ahn was appointed to the Texas State Board of Medical
Examiners.
"There was a lot of resistance by the Texas Medical Association," Dr.
Ahn recalled. "They went to the Texas Attorney General to say I was
not
qualified. Of course I was qualified. They were all upset about it."
Dr. Ahn served on the board of medical examiners until 1989, and on
the Texas Air Control Board in 1991.
"She did an exemplary job on the Air Control Board during my term of
office – one of my best appointments," Ms. Richards said.
Dr. Ahn's work on the Air Control Board to control air pollution was a
tragic foreshadowing. After she was diagnosed with lung cancer, she
was convinced air pollution was the cause.
"When you see half of all lung cancers being in non-smokers, that's a
lot of people," she said. "We're going to see an epidemic."
Dr. Ahn is survived by her husband, Dr. Steven Hays; a daughter,
Kimberly Hays; a son, Foster Hays; her parents, and Dr. Chai and Suni
Tuk Ahn of Dallas.
A memorial will be at Highland Park United Methodist Church at 4 p.m.
Friday. Memorials may be made to the Suzanne Ahn, M.D. Speaker
Endowment Fund at the Dallas Women's Foundation, 4300 MacArthur Ave.,
Suite 255. Dallas, TX 75209.