Kat Simonelli
Editor in Chief
Friends, family, students and colleagues came together to honor the life of Dr. Sue Caple at a celebration of life ceremony Wednesday in Morgan Auditorium.
The University of La Verne lost a valued faculty member when Dr. Caple died March 1 at the age of 65 following a long battle with cancer.
Fond memories and funny moments helped Dr. Caple’s colleagues remember her kind heart and charismatic personality.
Associate Professor of Management and Leadership Deborah Olson recounted a time when she and Dr. Caple were trying to retell a story from one of their travel study trips and they just could not get through it without busting up in laughter.
“That’s what it was like with Sue, you had to be there to get how funny, how goofy, how silly she was, but at the same time how much she cared about her students, how much she wanted to make sure she was the best colleague she could be,” Olson said. “We talk a lot around here about the values of collaboration and inclusivity, and Sue was the exemplar of that. She knew how to include people… how to collaborate, and make people feel special.”
Dr. Caple was a faculty member at La Verne for 15 years. She had a hand in the Integrated Business Program and worked as a business management and leadership adviser as well. She also had an impact on the lives of a countless number of students.
“Sue had a way of making everyone feel at home when you were around her,” senior business administration major Tess Zasadny said. “She always provided her students a shoulder to lean on or an ear that would listen.”
Dr. Caple was born March 10, 1949, in International Falls, Minnesota. She received her bachelor of arts degree in French from the University of Minnesota in 1971. She earned her master’s of business administration from Loyola University in 1982, and her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Otago in New Zealand in 2008.
Dr. Caple taught courses such as Principles of Marketing, Business Marketing and Seminar in Consumer Behavior.
“She was a free spirit with a gentle soul that never stops giving,” Dean of the College of Business and Public Management Abe Helou said. “Those were three of the attributes that made her who she was.”
The University has established the Sue Caple Memorial Fund to help graduate students study abroad.
Kat Simonelli can be reached at kathryn.simonelli@laverne.edu.
