Susie Isikawa Sato born in 1917, was a long-time staff member of the Arizona Historical Foundation at Arizona State University in Hayden Library. She and many others ran the Arizona Collection helping students and faculty members with their research needs long before the digital era had arrived. After navigating multiple sources of research there was Susie; the woman with a heart of gold and a sharp mind full of knowledge of Arizona history, the history of the Japanese in Arizona and her own family history. Susie had a knowledge of local history, especially the history of Mesa, and that was combined with her own history of struggle and hard work, Susie made others want to learn about the history of Arizona. Numerous students were successful in obtaining their A.A.s., B.A.s,,.M. A.s, and Ph.D’s in history because of Suse. Those same people went on to become seasoned professors and historians, important scholars and writers, teachers and public speakers due to Susie’s encouragement and nurturing. In addition, she was a published author and a long-term proponent of the Mesa Historical Society and the Mesa Public Library History Room. Susie was Mesa’s first Pride in Mesa recipient in 1998.
2026 Tempe Legend – Susie Sato (1917-2015)
