School Alumni Associations

IU School of Social Work Alumni Association

Alumni Profiles

Hazel Holm Schuller

The Holm family emigrated from Sweden to Wisconsin where they became farmers. Hazel was born in 1928 in nearby Duluth, Minnesota. Her other grandparents were from Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee, and some members of this side of her family served in the Revolutionary War and Confederate and Union armies of the Civil War.

Hazel’s parents met at the boarding house where her mother lived while teaching high school in Ishpeming, Michigan. Her father was a traveling salesman who also
had a life insurance business.  They eventually married and settled in northwestern Wisconsin.  Her father died when Hazel was twelve years old, at which time she, her mother, brother and sister moved to Florida to live with Hazel’s maternal grandparents. Her mother was able to finance college educations for all three of her
children through library work and teaching school.

Her mother was Hazel’s social group work role model.  She organized a Girl Scout Troop with her daughters, emphasizing rural outdoors, camping and fund raising by selling handmade Christmas wreaths door-to-door to her Superior, Wisconsin city friends.  Hazel was also influenced by her older sister who became a professional Girl Scout upon graduation from Florida State College for Women with a Master’s Degree in Community Organization Social Work.

Hazel graduated from Maryville College in Tennessee in 1951. During her student membership in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) on that campus, she organized college students to work in an after school children’s program at the Methodist Church near the college and her senior college thesis was a report about that community organization and group work. During her undergraduate summers, she worked at settlement houses in Chicago and New York City, at a Girl Scout Camp in Florida and for National Missions Programs.  She was  then hired by Miss Mary Riggs to work with an after school children’s program at the Southwest Social Centre in Indianapolis.

When she enrolled in the IU Division of Social Service, Group Work Professor Violet Tennant introduced her to the IU graduate program by signing her up for a camping course taught by Rose Dobroff and also helped her secure graduate school scholarships.  Her first year group work field placement was with a girls’ social club at the Indianapolis Jewish Community Center, where Al Dobroff was Director. She was supervised by Abe Rabinowitz. During her second year of graduate school, Hazel was awarded a scholarship from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her fieldwork placement was as a social group worker with a treatment team at the LaRue Carter Hospital, which was then a new psychiatric research and training facility connected to the IU Medical School. Her experience at Carter Hospital had a long time effect on Hazel’s social work career.  She mentioned that she and Ruth Brose Rogers, class of ’52 knew each other well.  They both lived at the Bertha Ballard Residence for Women in Indianapolis, had common friends, and they are still in touch.

Hazel earned her Master’s Degree from the IU Division of Social Service in 1954 and she also earned her Master’s Degree in Education from Montclair State College in New Jersey in 1972.  After graduating from IU, Hazel worked in New York and New Jersey. Some of her social work positions were at: the Henry Street Settlement House;  the Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks; the Girls’ Group Home in the Bronx; the Jewish Community Center in Brooklyn; the Family Service of Bloomfield, NJ; Kean College; a preschool and junior high school in Montclair, NJ; and the James N. Jarvie Commonwealth Service.

After forty years in social work, with membership in the National Association of Group Workers before it merged with the National Association of Social Workers,
Hazel was recognized by the NASW as an ACSW emeritus gold member. She now receives all of the benefits of NASW membership at no cost.

Hazel married Edward Schuller in 1957. As a food technologist, he was regulatory affairs manager for Roche Pharmaceuticals food and flavors division.  They have
two sons.  They lived in New York City for about eight years and then moved to Nutley, NJ which was their home for the next thirty years.  They then retired to
Sanibel, Florida, which had been their summer home for twenty years. Their son, Carl, lives nearby in Fort Myers and is a fulltime volunteer receptionist for the
Southwest Florida Addiction Services. Lars is a real estate attorney and lives with his wife in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A commitment to mental health recovery and advocacy extends to this day in Hazel’s personal life, as her younger brother, her niece, and her oldest son, who is a
traumatic brain injury survivor, were all diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder at various stages in their lives. She is now involved in mental health justice and awareness, and she also participates in campaigns for saving Sanibel’s natural beach environment.

Written by Irene Weinberg  

See the IUPUI Office of Alumni Relations Calendar of Events for upcoming School of Social Work alumni programs.

School of Social Work web site 

IUPUI Office of Alumni Relations contact:
Karen Deery, (317) 274-8959 or kdeery@iupui.edu