Sue Saunders will be remembered as an inspiring, talented, and generous-hearted person who gave so much to the Cordwainers Company in terms of time and expertise. She was quite simply a force of nature in the world of footwear and was a wonderful ambassador for the industry. She seemed to know everyone worth knowing in footwear design, having either taught them or worked with them, and was one of the first professional footwear educationalists to join the Company.
The Cordwainers Company was always close to her heart and, having been pivotal in footwear education for so many years, she was a well-respected member of the Education Committee. The Cordwainers particularly valued her guidance when it came to launching the Cordwainers National Footwear Student of the Year Competition in 2014, which as Sue herself said, enabled ‘designers of the future to be challenged and supported by the original home of the British footwear business, the Cordwainers’ Company’.
Sue was utterly supportive of her students, and always delighted in their successes. One tribute sums up her work, calling her the ‘very best lecturer I have ever had the pleasure to work with: her passion never dulled.’
If Sue was pleased to be a Cordwainer, the Company was doubly proud to call her a liveryman and we will greatly miss her.
CarréDucker put together this lovely tribute to Sue, which was first shown at the Shoemaker’s Conference in February.
Thanks to Liveryman John Miller and Freeman Jane Schaffer for their contributions.