“I’m still in shock and feel like crying,” Caley Compton, junior Education major, said. “She was the kind of teacher that reminded you to live life to the fullest. I’ve had her for two semesters. She’s by far my favorite professor at WT.”

Dr. Robin Capt, Assistant Professor in the Education Department, died Nov. 11 in a plane crash outside of Amarillo along with her husband, William Capt, and son, William Capt II.

Dr. Capt received many awards as part of the faculty at WT, including the 2009 Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award, a 2008 Outstanding Graduate Student Research Paper Award, and was up for Tenure this year. She was hired to the Department of Education by Dr. Eddie Henderson, dean of the College of Education and Social Sciences, roughly six years ago. She also served as Associate Dean of the graduate school.

“She has done an excellent job with teaching her courses, but the thing that I most appreciate about her is that she was always willing to assist in whatever we had going on,” Henderson said. “She was responsible for the college chili cook off every year. She was kind of a chili cook off queen. She pretty much did it all.”

Henderson said many of the students, faculty and staff members have been expressing condolences.

“I always felt so inspired after leaving her class,” Caitlin Welch, Education major, said. “She was one of those teachers that you aspire to be. She was caring, passionate, understanding, encouraging, and was always challenging us to dig deeper and think outside of the box. She was the epitome of what every teacher should be, and I will be forever grateful for her guidance.”

Memorial services will be held on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2:00 p.m. in the Legacy Hall. The services are open to all faculty, staff and students of the university.

Additional reporting by Tyler Anderson and Cheyenne Black