Glenn CAPPS

1964 - 2017

CAPPS, Glenn George
Glenn George Capps died on December 25, 2016 after a thirty-year battle with MS. "George" was born in Galveston, Texas on June 22, 1964 to Glenn Rupe Capps and Ann Schlesselman Capps. George graduated third in his class from Austin High School in 1982. He earned a BS in Biology in 1985 from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was selected for membership by Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He attended the University of Texas Law School for a year before returning to his true passion and matriculating into the PhD program in Microbiology at the University of Texas. He was awarded a National Science Foundation Gradate Research Fellowship in 1987. He earned a PhD in Microbiology in 1990 and then became a Research Scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) where he did immunological research. When George could no longer work at the lab bench he mentored UCSC undergraduates who went on to careers in medicine or research. George was a valued colleague in the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at UCSC and at the annual Midwinter Conference of Immunologists to the end of his life.

George was brilliant, witty, charming, and brave. He inspired everyone lucky enough to have known him. He was kind and generous and always ready to help anyone. His faith, courage, dignity, sense of humor, and zest for life were unwavering throughout numerous medical challenges that would crush most people.

George is survived by his wife, Martha Zúñiga, mother, Ann Schlesselman Capps, sister Nancy Capps, aunt Gail Pate, uncle Francis Pate, cousins Sara Gail Cranford, Betsy Droddy, and Frank Pate, their children Lillian Cranford, Marty and Grace Ann Droddy, and numerous Zúñiga family in-laws and dear friends, all of whose lives he enriched immeasurably. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to Shared Adventures (http://sharedadventures.org/), a non-profit organization that provides recreational opportunities to disabled persons. Memorial services and celebrations of George's life will be held in Austin and Mason, TX in the spring of 2017.