In Memory

REMEMBERING SUSAN WARFIELD “SUE” CAPLES ’60

Lead donor for the Social Work Program was devoted to MBU

Former Mary Baldwin trustee and Alumni Board president, and lead donor and namesake of MBU’s social work program, Susan Warfield “Sue” Caples ’60 died on April 18 after a long struggle with dementia. She was 82 years old.

“Sue made a lasting impact on Mary Baldwin through her devoted service on the Alumni Board and the Board of Trustees, and through her and husband Rob’s founding and support of the social work program,” said MBU President Pamela Fox. “Their generosity set in motion the careers of so many social workers who are dedicated to improving quality of life for individuals and communities, just as Sue did herself. I remember with great fondness the day Sue and I sat in a coffee shop in Williamsburg and began to formulate the vision and the dream for the program that now bears her name.”

When Caples learned in 2007 that 148 students had petitioned Mary Baldwin to add a bachelor of social work to the curriculum, she told her husband, Rob, “we have to be a part of this.” Passionate about the field, Caples had returned to school after raising her children to earn a master of social work from Fordham University, and practiced as a medical social worker in Connecticut and New York, before retiring with her husband to Williamsburg.

With a generous donation in answer to those students’ call, the couple made possible the founding of Mary Baldwin’s nationally accredited social work program, and a later gift by the Caples family in 2015 endowed it for generations to come under the name of the Susan Warfield Caples Department of Social Work.

Their endowment also established a scholarship to support students with demonstrated financial need enrolled in the social work program through the Caples Social Work Fund. It is now one of MBU’s most popular undergraduate majors, both on campus and through MBU Online.

“As for my Mary Baldwin experience, it was the perfect school for me,” said Sue Caples in 2010, “and I learned more there about myself than I have learned in any other setting. I owe so much to Mary Baldwin.”

She is survived by Rob, her husband of 59 years, and their three sons and families: Scott, his wife, Jen, and children Ridge and Samantha; Tim, his wife, Jill, and children Mac and Elie; and Jeff, his wife, Christina, and children Andrew and Catherine.

Memorial contributions in Sue Caples’ honor may be made to the MBU Caples Social Work Fund at marybaldwin.edu/ giving or the Respite Care Ministry through Williamsburg United Methodist Church.

REMEMBERING BILL POLLARD

University archives to be named in his honor

Depending on when they spent their time at Mary Baldwin, members of the university community will remember Bill Pollard as the librarian, the volunteer archivist, or the institutional historian. In any era, Pollard was always regarded as an enthusiastic and immensely helpful gentleman and researcher. He died on March 27 at 97 years old.

“His service, particularly as archivist, was exceptional,” said MBU President Pamela Fox. “A gentle, wise, and humble soul, he preserved our history. I was blessed to have known him.”

Pollard was library director at Mary Baldwin until his retirement in 1992, and he served as chair of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration. He then took on a volunteer position for 20 years as the school’s first and only archivist. For this he was named an honorary alumnus of the university.

To further honor Pollard’s work and dedication, Fox announced this week that the Mary Baldwin University archives would be named in his memory during a special dedication on Founders Day this fall.

Pollard had a strong track record of learning about key pieces of the institution’s history and, in many cases, tracking down artifacts, including the large stained-glass window commemorating Mary Julia Baldwin’s achievements now prominently displayed in the Grafton Library.

He found the window in a coal bin in the basement of old Bailey Hall, which was demolished in 2001 to make way for the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted Center.

When Pollard became MBU’s archivist, he told MBU news that “literally, things were in attics and closets around campus.” Among his other discoveries are a painting of Baldwin’s dog Beauty, used as a prop in a theatrical production, and a Mary Baldwin apple crate, left over from the days when the school owned an orchard that inspired Apple Day. He spotted the crate at a nearby apple farm. “I knew what it was,” he said. “I had seen the photograph.”

He previously shared an office with Patricia H. Menk, the late professor emerita of history and author of To Live in Time: The Sesquicentennial History of Mary Baldwin College. Pollard assisted in the writing of that history as well.

“I often came to him for help running down landmarks in Baldwin’s long history,” said Lew Askegaard, retired dean of institutional research, who knew Pollard for 35 years. “Alumni and faculty would raise arcane questions about great-great-aunts or the impact of the panic of 1893 on enrollment. I loved to go to Bill with these. He was generous, curious, and a quiet gift to this great college and community.”

University Librarian Carol Creager, like so many at MBU, had trouble calling Pollard anything but “Mr. Pollard.”

“He left the archives — his archives — wonderfully organized and usable, with written trails of where and how to best find answers,” Creager said. “His distinctive handwriting — I think of it as Pollarddating — leaves clues about when an item was added or reviewed.”

His early type-written letters and notes, sometimes on 3×5 cards, Creager said, are scattered throughout the files and archival boxes and have become historic treasures in themselves.

As Pollard would attest, though, Creager said there’s still work to be done, and several elusive items still to be discovered.

“Not surprisingly, he was sure there was a photo of Mary Julia out there, somewhere. [There is no known photo of Baldwin. Her face was disfigured during a childhood illness, and she would not permit portraits or photos to be taken.] We’ll keep looking and will work to sustain what he began.”

Originally from Farmville, North Carolina, Pollard earned an undergraduate degree in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in library science from Florida State University. Before becoming head librarian at Mary Baldwin in 1977, he held similar positions at the College of William and Mary and at what was then its Norfolk branch, now Old Dominion University.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Hatch “Betsy” Pollard, with whom he lived just a short walk from campus, and their three daughters and their husbands, seven grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. His daughter, Elizabeth Pollard Hemeter, is a member of the Mary Baldwin Class of 1973.