CC Worker Honored For 33 Years of Smiles

[Miss-Delectable]

KRDO.com - Colorado Springs - Pueblo - CC Worker Honored For 33 Years of Smiles

The power to make someone smile is a special gift. On the Colorado College campus one man with that talent won't be showing up for work anymore- Jim Capp is retiring after 33 years.

Capp is deaf and has suffered from cerebral palsy since birth. But those handicaps have never been limitations for Jim who worked in the school's cafeteria. Monday night he was honored for the uniqueness he brought to the table.

"It felt good knowing that today was the last day," Jim says through sign language, speaking of Monday's final hurrah as a food services worker on campus. Capp was honored with a special retirement ceremony attended by family and close friends he made over the years.

Jim has collected hundreds of pictures of friends and coworkers in his three decades on the job that he'll take with him into retirement. What he gave in return was inspiration.

"Jim was that constant figure that kept plugging along and doing his thing... enjoying what he did along the way," says one of his former bosses Randy Kruse.

Along the way Jim became a volunteer teacher of sign language. His willingness to give his time to help others led to a Thousand Points of Light letter of recognition from President George Herbert Walker Bush. But what most people around the school will remember is Jim's sense of humor and his spirit.

"He perseveres and I think that sends a huge message to the rest of us," says Kruse. "He never sent a message that indicated he wanted to give up or quit because the going got tough, he just kept on going and that sends a great message to anybody."

Capp also has ties with another local school-- he graduated from the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind in 1967. Friends say Jim looks too young to retire but he knows it's time to go.

"Yeah I'll miss the people. But most of the people I really miss have graduated and gone away," says Capp.

Along with teaching and his regular gig at CC, Jim is an artist. He says that and lots of TV watching will fill retirement.

 

[Miss-Delectable]

An inspiration in dining hall

Gazette.com

Jim Capp washed dishes in the campus dining hall for 33 years, starting at minimum wage.

He planned to do it for 40 years.

But aging can be worse on someone with cerebral palsy.

The man who never complained told his brother, “I can’t do it anymore. My back hurts. My knees hurt.”

Monday, friends and family gathered at Colorado College’s Worner Center for Capp’s retirement party.

Big spreads of fancy appetizers were served. Afterward, Capp was happy to let others wash the dishes.

“No more,” he said. “I’m done with that.”

Capp, who is deaf, used facial gestures and interpreters to recount his career.

“I liked it. . . . But it was hard work,” he said.

Randy Kruse, former director of Sodexho, the campus food-service company, said the dishroom is hot and grueling.

“He’d come to work when he was on his deathbed,” Kruse said. “He has been here longer than anybody.”

Co-workers said he made work fun.

“He was always flirting with the girls. And they would with him,” said CC graduate Peter Aubrey, a student dishwasher in the 1970s.

“He taught me how to finger spell. I never got really good; he was always patient with me,” Aubrey said.

Capp started a volunteer class for sign language around 1990 and about 80 students showed up for the first class.

It was a club for several years, sanctioned by the college.

Capp’s roots are in Greeley. He entered The Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind at age 6.

After graduating at 21, he worked at Goodwill Industries before taking the job at CC.

He stayed, making it on his own, miles from relatives.

He lives in an apartment near campus, and he likes to watch pro wrestling. The Broncos run a close second. He collects comics, stamps and coins. He paints nature scenes and makes beaded stars.

“It’s tough. You want to protect him and guard him and do everything for him. But that’s bad,” said his brother, Jack. “He takes great delight in having a checkbook and paying his own bills. He’s conservative.”

He kept his VCR unplugged for years when it wasn’t in use so it wouldn’t waste electricity, his brother said.

“To save a dime a year,” added his sister, Jo Ann.

“He read the Wall Street Journal every morning,” Sodexho retiree Marcia Lee said. “He’d have his breakfast with it.”

At one point, Capp’s family applied for housing assistance for him.

“He got the notice that he was approved. He turned it down,” his brother said.

“He said there were a lot of people who needed it more.”

Capp’s retirement means he no longer has health insurance and won’t be able to eat for free where he worked.

He loses his social contacts.

That’s what his relatives worry about.

“Loneliness,” said his sister, Judy.

“Financially, he is fine. I tried to get him to move to Texas to be near me. Colorado Springs is his home,” she said.

Many of the people he worked with and washed up after are gone.

“As he has gotten older, the students don’t relate as much anymore,” his brother said.

He has his coins, his comics, his art, his independence.

“He’s the most inspirational person. There is no animosity, no anger, no sadness, even with all he has been through and his plight in life,” his brother said.