The Alumni Distinguished Service Award recognizes Winthrop alumni who significantly
contribute to the quality of life in their community, the development of values and
morals within others and who serve as outstanding citizens. Sue Frances Meriwether
Steed '67 is one of four alumnae who are the 2017 recipients of this award.
Steed is the first African-American student to earn a degree at Winthrop in May 1967.
The Charleston, S.C., native transferred to Winthrop in the spring of 1965 from Tennessee
Agricultural & Industrial State University, now Tennessee State University. Steed
credits her father, the late Wilhelm Meriwether, with enrolling her at Winthrop, where
she roomed with Delores Johnson Hurt '68 and the late Arnetta Gladden Mackey '67.
Steed's brother, Wilhelm Delano Meriwether, was the first African-American student
accepted into Duke University School of Medicine.
She earned a M.A.T. degree in biology from The Citadel in 1975 and received further
post graduate training from the College of Charleston and Charleston Southern University.
A third generation teacher, Steed started in education as a Head Start program assistant
teacher in Lancaster, S.C., in 1967. Later that year, she began her high school teaching
career which spanned 39 years at Laing, Moultrie, and Wando high schools in the Mt.
Pleasant area of Charleston County.
Steed retired in 2006 and after stints as a substitute teacher, counselor and assistant
site coordinator at an after school program, she retired again in June of 2017. She
continues to volunteer and is an active member of Calvary Episcopal Church, Charleston,
S.C., where she is a member of the choir, the Episcopal Church Women, the Altar Guild,
the Daughters of the King, and serves as Supervisor of the Acolytes. She is also an
active founder of the Charleston County Bible Institute. Steed enjoys life with daughters
Terri, a recreation department coordinator in Mt. Pleasant, SC, and Tammi, a teacher
in Charleston, SC. Steed is grandmother to Varanda, a junior at the University of
South Carolina, and the late Stephen Wilson who has brought an awareness to Chronic
Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
