Susan Hager, Businesswoman and Community Volunteer, Dies at 63.
Susan Hager, who founded and led the successful communications firm Hager Sharp for 35 years, died on July 26 at her home in Washington due to complications related to polycystic kidney disease. She was 63.
Hager was an early advocate and role model for women business owners. In 1973, a time when it was not easy for women to break into the corporate world on their own, Hager and co-founder Marcia Sharp started their firm with one client and a two- person office on K Street. They specialized in providing corporate, non-profit and government clients with communications, public relations and marketing services. The firm has since grown to be one of the largest, independently owned communications firms in the Washington area. Sharp retired from the partnership in 1993.
Under Hager’s leadership, the firm celebrated its 35th anniversary in June 2008. Hager was nationally recognized for her advocacy on behalf of women and for her leadership roles in the small business sector. She was a founder and the first president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, served as president of National Small Business United (now National Small Business Association), and served on the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Small Business Administration under five U.S. presidents.
Hager grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky as the oldest of seven children. After graduating from Brescia University in Owensboro, Hager volunteered to live in the small Eskimo village of White Mountain, Alaska as part of the Volunteers in Service to America program, known as VISTA. While there, she initiated a community newspaper and began a Head Start program for this remote Alaska Native village. In Alaska, she met fellow VISTA volunteer, Eric Hager, and the couple married in 1967.
Soon thereafter they moved to Washington where Hager worked on behalf of VISTA and the Peace Corps as a recruitment officer. She then served as a program analyst for the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and program director for the National Center for Voluntary Action, before starting her firm.
In 1991, Hager was appointed to the Board of Trustees of The Lab School of Washington and served as Chair and President for more than a decade. Under Hager’s leadership the School completed a $9 million capital campaign which dramatically improved the School’s facilities and capacity to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities.
As an adult, Hager was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and in 2001 received a kidney transplant at the Washington Hospital Center. The procedure was successful and Hager quickly returned to an active role with the firm and her many community activities.
She has served on the boards of directors of Leadership Greater Washington, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and the Council on Small Business of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
At the time of her death, she served as a member of the Women’s Advisory Board of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capitol, the boards of directors of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. She was also a trustee of the Federal City Council, The Lab School of Washington, and Brescia University.
Hager was the recipient of several awards. In 2000, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame of the National Association of Women Business Owners, and in 2001 Working Woman magazine singled Hager out as one of 25 “heroines (and heroes) whose actions over the last quarter century have given women in the workplace a better shot.”
She also received Leadership Washington’s 2003 “Volunteer of the Year Award.” In 2004 she was the recipient of the “Washingtonian of the Year” award from Washingtonian magazine, the “Women Who Mean Business” award from Washington Business Journal, and was named “Woman of the Year” by Washington Women in Public Relations. In 2005, she was inducted into the Public Relations Society of America’s National Capitol Chapter Hall of Fame.
Hager was an active hostess who loved to entertain family, friends, and colleagues. Throughout her life in Washington, she worked and socialized with people from all parts of the community. Hager’s annual Kentucky Derby party was always a popular springtime event that brought together the wide cross-section of her many friends and business associates.
Hager is survived by her husband Eric Hager of Washington, D.C.; her daughter Elizabeth Finley, son-in-law Christopher Finley and granddaughters Kathryn and Jane Finley all of Narberth, Pennsylvania; and five siblings, Karla Cox and Richard Kulka of Owensboro, Kentucky; Andrew Kulka of Evansville, Indiana; John Kulka of Knoxville, Tennessee; and Ned Kulka of Louisville, Kentucky. Hager’s brother, Stephen Kulka of Owensboro, Kentucky preceded her in death.
A memorial service is planned for October. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to:
Washington Hospital Center Kidney Transplant Fund
Washington Hospital Center Foundation
110 Irving Street, NW
East Building
Room 1001
Washington, DC 20010