Susan (Cherkofsky) Samry enrolled at Cape Cod Community College in the fall of 1984. Following in her grandmother’s footsteps she initially enrolled and was accepted as a nursing student but quickly changed her mind towards teaching. She graduated in the spring of 1986 and transferred to Southeastern Massachusetts University, now UMASS Dartmouth. Alan Samry, a below the knee amputee, enrolled at CCCC in the spring of 1986 after taking time off for surgery at Shriners Children’s New England. Alan wrote for the Main Sheet student newspaper, where his love of writing began. He left CCCC in the fall of 1988 to work and graduated in 1990. Even though Susan and Alan walked the halls of CCCC for a semester, they didn’t meet until they began working at Kappy’s Liquors in Falmouth. Susan graduated from UMASS in 1989 with a Bachelor’s in Humanities/ SocialSciences/Elementary Education. They married in 1991. Susan began teaching at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School in Bourne. Missing writing and with Susan’s encouragement Alan applied for and became a reporter with the Mashpee Enterprise. Susan went back to school to earn her Master’s in Reading and with the financial support from UCT enrolled in Salem State College’s remote Master’s of Education: Reading Specialist on the CCCC campus. She earned her Master’s while working full time as a teacher at UCT in 2000. In 2005 Alan and Susan moved closer to family in Alabama and relocated to Fairhope on Mobile Bay. Instead of teaching in a high school setting, she decided to teach students who were still eager to learn.
Susan accepted a 2nd grade position at Daphne East Elementary School. Alan began writing for The Fairhope Courier. Another dream of Alan’s, to work at a library, opened and he became a reference assistant at Fairhope Public Library. He returned to college earning, his Bachelor’s from University of South Alabama in 2009, Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Spalding University in 2012, and Master’s of Library and Information Science from The University of Alabama in 2017. Susan became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2022. Alan left the library to work at Coastal Alabama Community College. He started writing books: Stump the Librarian in 2018, Mapping Fairhope in 2022, and Fairhope: Past and Present in 2023. Alan continues to write for local publications and is now Coordinator of Library Services and the Marietta Johnson Museum on the Fairhope Campus.
Susan and Alan are active in their communities, becoming members of the Fairhope Single Tax Cooperation in 2017. Alan serves as a director and Susan works with the archives committee. Susan is a member of Hope Blooms and Impact 100 Baldwin County. Alan serves on the Fairhope Historic Preservation Commission, and both are actively involved in the Baldwin County Historical Society and numerous local “Friends” organizations.