SUE BIERER 2025
A 46-YEAR RESIDENT, RETIRED TEACHER SUE BIERER WORKS TO PRESERVE THE HISTORY OF WELLINGTON
STORY BY DEBORAH WELKY | PHOTO BY KENDALL BIERER
Sue Bierer has been serving as the president of the Wellington Historical Society since 2023, which is apropos, since she herself is a perfect example of how Wellington began. Bierer graduated from Maine South High School in Illinois and was working as a teacher when she agreed to meet some friends for dinner at a restaurant in the Gould Inc. building where they worked. “I very unexpectedly met Bill Ylvisaker and his No. 2 man, George Millington, who were both in the restaurant at the time,” Bierer recalled. “I started talking to George, and told him I was a teacher, but that I was trying to get a job in Florida because I had been reading Chronicle of the Horse, and there was a tiny little article about a superb new facility opening in the Palm Beaches called Palm Beach Polo & Country Club in a town called Wellington.” As an equestrian, this fascinated her. “I had been riding all my life, as well as showing hunters and jumpers around the Midwest, and I told him I’d love to move there and bring my horse, but I didn’t have any contacts,” Bierer continued. “That’s when he said, ‘We own it.’ He set me up for interviews at Palm Beach Polo.” It was a dream come true! She and her horse moved to Wellington in the fall of 1979 and started working in the PR department at the old Palm Beach Polo stadium building. (“It broke my heart when they tore it down,” she said.) Her fiancé, Leonard, followed a few months later. They married and have one daughter, Kendall. Back then, while Bierer’s horse stayed in the show barn, she was busy coordinating visiting VIP groups and celebrities. “Merv Griffin had a unit there, Zsa Zsa Gabor had a unit there, and others just came to enjoy the social atmosphere and be ‘seen’ — Joan Collins, Jane Seymour, Sonny Bono... Prince Charles came to play polo, and later he brought Lady Di,” she continued. Eventually, Bierer realized that she missed teaching and went back to it, teaching at Wellington Elementary School from 1985 until she retired in 2012, 27 years in all. 22 September 2025 | WELLINGTON THE MAGAZINE
Then, in 2018, avid reader Bierer saw another small item that piqued her interest. “There was an announcement in the Town-Crier, asking people who were interested in preserving the history of Wellington to a meeting,” Bierer said. “Len and I went, since we’d watched Wellington grow since 1979. There were a lot of people there. Later that month, I got a call from Maureen Budjinski, who asked me to be on the all-volunteer board of the Wellington Historical Society. We held our first board retreat on March 24, 2018. Laurie Cohen was the president for years and is still very involved but, when she stepped down, I took over in 2023.” Bierer said that getting the history of Wellington included in the local fourth-grade social studies curriculum as one of the nonprofit’s greatest accomplishments. “Together, with other teachers from Wellington schools, we worked for years to put together a PowerPoint presentation to present to the Palm Beach County School Board. It covered Wellington’s origins from the Seminole Indians to the present day. They suggested changes, it was reformatted and, finally, it was approved and implemented in all fourth-grade classes,” Bierer said. “We picked fourth grade because they do a unit on Florida Studies. It has been very well received. Teachers enjoy teaching it, and the kids love it. No other schools in Palm Beach County teach the history of their community, although the school board has told us that they wish they would.” Another important initiative launched by the Wellington Historical Society is its Oral Histories archive. “This highlights many of Wellington’s pioneers who were instrumental in our early formative years and is available for viewing through www.wellingtonhistoricalsociety.org,” Bierer said. “There’s a plethora of wonderful interviews there.” The Wellington Historical Society also hosts “Lunch and Learn” talks and several mixers each year. “And every group needs volunteers,” she said. “It’s only $35 to become a member, and we need to raise awareness that we even exist.” Learn more about the Wellington Historical Society at www. wellingtonhistoricalsociety.org.