21 Sep 2016
I had heard a lot of good things about Sue, mostly from Vicki Sara, before I met her. When Sue breezed into the room for the interviews for Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UTS I knew in an instant it was all true. She was so positive, upbeat, and warm and I realised that she would be a wonderfully nurturing "mother" to our researchers at UTS, especially our female staff. And that is what she proved to be. It was an important time at UTS as our Research was just in its flowering stage and needed a strategy to lift it to a new level. Sue did that and proved to be very motivational and inspirational along the way.
Sue was a wonderful colleague and friend. In fact I don't think that Sue ever distinguished between those two words. She was a great team player and contributed to the major strategic initiatives at UTS even outside of her portfolio. Always warm, supportive and encouraging of everything that was new and innovative. And always with a smile on her face. In some sense as colleagues we were an odd "couple"- me wanting to get straight to the point about an issue, and Sue taking the long way around, traversing every point, even tangential ones, before getting back to the issue at hand. But we learned to live with each other on that and thrive.
Sue bore her burden with such dignity and grace and we are all so much poorer for her loss. But we are so much richer for having known her and worked with her. She leaves a lasting memory for me and for a huge number of staff at UTS.
Ross Milbourne