Jessica Suzanne Arroyo

Jessica Suzanne "Sue" Arroyo of Fort Collins, CO, passed away on February 26, 2024. Her sudden loss was unexpected, and her family is profoundly saddened. Sue was only 57 years of age.

Sue, the eldest of three children, was born on July 2, 1966, at Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan to Mariana and Evelio Arroyo. Her parents moved their family to the suburbs of New Jersey when Sue was four, and her sister Evelyn was one. Later, in 1978, their family welcomed the youngest, David. Sue affectionately called him her Munchkin.

The family has many fond memories of adventures along the Jersey shore, from fun trips to Sandy Hook Beach to enjoying the rides and zeppoles at Keansburg Amusement Park. Every weekend, Sue's family would have assigned chores, and while everyone was busy, there was always background music playing from the 1950s and 1960s. Sue loved artists like Chuck Berry. She was a talented baton twirler, creating routines and practicing for hours in the family garage to tunes like "Johnny B. Goode.".

Sue's father was one of eight children, and her mother is one of 10 children. The family spent many weekends visiting extended family and enjoying gatherings with Sue's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who still lived in New York City and those who had moved to upstate New York and Massachusetts.

Summers were an unforgettable time for Sue and her siblings. Every year, their parents ensured they spent weeks with their cousins. Some of the best memories were singing along to the '70s and '80s hits, long summer days by the pool, county fairs, and when the kids were all together in New York City, getting Mr. Softy, or heading to the corner store to buy candy with allowance money.

One of Sue's favorite places to go was the public library. Her mother would ensure Sue and her siblings had every opportunity to access various books. Sue took advantage of her time there, teaching her sister how to locate books using catalog cards and advising on which ones were worth reading.

At a young age, Sue had a great passion for reading. Sue always read one, if not several, books at a time. This passion lasted her whole life. She eventually became an author under the pen name S.K. Waters. Her debut novel was "The Dead Won't Tell." Sue also established her own publishing company, CamCat Books.

Growing up, she attended school in New York and New Jersey, where she was an avid Mets fan. At one point, she had a pet cockatoo named Wally, after Mets second baseman Wally Backman. In 1986, Sue surprised the family with box tickets to see a Mets game, and the family still cherishes that memory.

She graduated from Highland High School in Highland, New York, where she played softball, was a member of the track team, and was a cheerleader. She also played a prominent role in the school play "The Uninvited," beginning college at 16.

She attended Marist College and Rutgers University, where she graduated with an English degree. She had a considerable interest in computer science during her studies, and she successfully turned her passion into becoming a software engineer and project manager, eventually founding her own company, Trident Technologies, in 2006. After 12 years, she successfully grew the company to 400 employees, and in 2015, it ranked #68 on the Inc. 500 list. After 12 years, she'd given as much as she could and taken Trident as far as possible. Sue had the opportunity to sell and spend the rest of her life following her passion, establishing CamCat Books.

Over the years, she loved to quilt, creating beautiful family heirlooms. Before COVID, she loved to travel and spent extensive time in Italy, at her home in Florence. Sue was also a very giving woman, organizing charitable golf events for the Alzheimer's Association in memory of her late father.

Sue is survived by her adult daughters, Camryn and Cathryn; her mother, Mariana Arroyo; her sister, Evelyn Casotti and her husband, Dan; their two daughters, Sydney and Ashley; her brother, David Arroyo and his wife, Cristina; their son, Douglas Rocha; and her sweet Maltese Abbie. Sue is predeceased by her father, Evelio Arroyo.

Sue once told her sister that she believed heaven was an extensive library and that anything a soul would ever want to know was in a book available to read in heaven. Her family hopes that Sue (mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, cousin, author, publicist, business owner, history buff, collector of t-shirts with silly but funny sayings, quilter, antique collector, etc.) finds it exactly as she hoped.