Susan, a native Atlantan, graduated from Sylvan High School, Mercer University, and Georgia State. After teaching at Therrell High School, she moved to Gwinnett County and started teaching at NHS in 1974. She chaired the English department for 20 years and was known for her focus on grammar and heavy emphasis on vocabulary. Students had to sit up straight in her class, say either “yes” or “yes ma’am”. Punishments awaited any student caught chewing gum in her class. Mrs. Stripling was the Yearbook advisor as well. Her daughter Taylor remembers her mom spreading all the pictures on tables throughout the home, allowing the family to help lay them out in sections. The family would then “stamp” the final product in their garage. She also started the school chapter of SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving). In 1999, a petition to name a future school in her honor was granted when Stripling Elementary was added to the Norcross cluster. Both Taylor, and her brother Todd are active at the school named after their mother.