Obituary of Sue Shulze
Sue Schulze, 100, of Sherman, Texas, Good Hart, Michigan, and formerly Greeley, Colorado,
died peacefully on September 12, 2022. She was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 14, 1922
to Alfred Gapps Sims and Christina Stringer Sims.
Sue was married to Robert Oscar Schulze from 1948 until his death in 1999. Later, she and Bob
Stern (a widower and old college sweetheart) looked after each other until he died a few years
ago. Sue said, ‘When I call him Bob by mistake, it’s OK.’
She attended the University of Michigan on scholarship and later earned master’s degrees in
political science and library science. After raising their children and supporting her husband’s
career at Brown University and the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, she became a professional
archivist and government documents librarian, retiring from a tenured professorship at the
University of Northern Colorado in 1989. During her library career, she published the definitive
works on the vast information available in 19 Century US censuses. She also became a leading expert on the newspaper editor, presidential candidate, and US Congressman Horace
Greeley.
Sue was heavily involved in civic life. She edited massive University of Michigan yearbooks as
an undergraduate, served on the Michigan and Rhode Island state boards of the League of
Women Voters and the Rhode Island board of the American Civil Liberties Union, was president
of the Joint Legislative Council of Rhode Island, was appointed by the governor to the Rhode
Island House of Representatives reapportionment commission, was her district’s 1992
Democratic candidate for the Colorado state legislature (running on a platform of universal
health care, educational excellence, and prison reform), served multiple elected terms on the
board of the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association, and was active in numerous
other civic and historical organizations in Providence, Rhode Island, Emmet County, Michigan,
and Weld County, Colorado. She was also a watercolorist, a master gardener, and enjoyed
hosting dinner parties.
She is survived by her son Peter Schulze of Sherman, Texas, her daughter Elizabeth Sauter of
Greeley, Colorado, and four grandchildren, Ben and Matt Schulze and Steven and Rachel Sauter.
A celebration of Sue’s life will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greeley, Colorado
(and simultaneously over Zoom) at 5:00 PM Mountain Time on October 15, 2022. Receptions to
follow will be held in Greeley and Sherman, and early next August in Good Hart, Michigan.
Please check the Dannel Funeral Home website https://dannelfuneralhome.com/obituaries/ for
the Zoom link and reception details. Condolences may be left at the funeral home website.
In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to the Petoskey and Harbor Springs (Michigan)
Area Community Foundation, the League of Women Voters, or the charity of your choice.
