Magazine Jul/Aug 2016

MEMBER FEATURE

ASingapore Love Story

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.

27 THE AMERICAN CLUB JUL / AUG 2016