When Chaminade University President Sue Wesselkamper was diagnosed with cancer in December 2005, we ran a short story on the second page of the Hawai'i section. The next time I saw her, she pointed out that we had placed the story on the obituaries page and playfully objected to the unintended implications.

"Mark, you could have put it on another page," she said with a sly smile.

Back then, we were convinced that President Sue, with her irrepressible spirit and unlimited courage, would find a way to beat bile-duct cancer, and she did for a time. But she passed away peacefully on Jan. 3 with family and friends at her side.

She was 66 — far too young to leave us — but her accomplishments and influence will be everlasting.

Just a month before she died, my wife and I visited with Sue and her husband Tom at their Kahala home. Sue was noticeably weak and frail but was ever the gracious hostess, serving lunch and presenting Christmas gifts even though she was in the final stage of her life.

Patrick Downes, editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald, was also at the lunch and we both asked gently if we could have reporters sit with her and reflect on her life. She apologized and said she needed more time to process what was happening to her and wasn't ready for an interview. No apology was needed, of course, but that was Sue, thinking of how she could help us at a time she had so much more to think about.

Chaminade students, administrators, faculty and community leaders loved Sue. Every conversation was sprinkled with good humor and a warm charm and she always seemed to be convincing someone to do something that would help Chaminade just a little bit more. It's no small wonder that she helped raise $66 million and rapidly grew enrollment to revitalize a campus that had fallen on hard times before her arrival.

Faculty members and staff talked about how they were drawn to come to the university because of Sue even though it never before occurred to them to move to Hawai'i. Marianist Brother Jerry Bommer has told the story many times of leaving St. Louis, Mo., for a job interview at Chaminade, never intending to stay, but doing so after watching President Sue in action.

The day after Sue died, I was struck by Bommer's quote in The Advertiser on Jan. 4 that "her whole life was a prayer." It was the most apt description one could use to summarize what Sue meant to the community, including the 500 people who filled St. Patrick's Church, most wearing buttons with her smiling face and a ribbon of purple, her favorite color.

We never did get that last interview with Sue but to everyone who got to know her just a little bit, as I did, she was an answer to prayer.

Mark Platte is senior vice president and editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at 525-8080 or post your comments at www.honoluluadvertiser.com.