Former high school English teacher Susan Bucklew currently serves as a US District Judge in her home state of Florida. Photo Credit: openjurist.org

Many fine classroom teachers have earned acclaim in professions other than education. One of these is Susan Cawthorn Bucklew, a former English teacher from Florida who currently serves as a US District Judge.

Susan was born on May 12, 1942, in Tampa, Florida, and she grew up in Seminole Heights. She graduated from Hillsborough High School in 1960. As a young woman, she earned her Bachelor’s degree with a major in English and a minor in Education from Florida State University in 1964. She earned her Master’s degree from the University of South Florida in 1968.

In her senior year of college, an internship at Plant High School in Tampa turned into a full-time job as an English teacher after her graduation. She also taught at Seminole High School in Tampa from 1965 to 1967, and at George D. Chamberlain High School in 1969. From 1974 to 1975, Susan taught at Hillsborough Community College. In all of her teaching posts, Susan had a reputation for being a very demanding teacher with h high expectations of her students.

In 1977, Susan completed the requirements for her Juris Doctorate from Station University College of Law in gulfport, Florida. She then left the classroom to work as corporate legal counsel for the Jim Walter Corporation, a position she held from 1978 to 1982. For the next four years she worked as a county judge in Hillsborough County Court, the first female judge to work in that county. From 1986 to 1992 she served as a circuit judge for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida. In 1993, Susan was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the US District Court for Middle District of Florida, and the next month she was confirmed to the position by the US Senate.

To read more about former teacher and judge Susan Bucklew, click on this link to read an interview with her published by Scholar Commons.