Leading By Example: Schuppert Reflects On Long Pacific Career
Cindy Schuppert '83
Cindy Schuppert '83 retired as Pacific University's Director of Facilities Management and Campus Public Safety in October 2025. She has been a member of the Pacific community for 48 years. Submitted photo.

Cindy Schuppert ’83 was part of the facilities team at Pacific University before she ever set foot on the Forest Grove Campus as a student.

Her Pacific journey began in 1977 when, as a 16-year-old, she spent the summer with a crew of students and teachers from Gaston (Oregon) High School on an exterior remodeling project on Knight Hall.

“We totally re-did the siding,” Schuppert said. “(Knight) used to have two front doors, one that went straight up the stairs. We took that out. We painted the whole thing. It took all summer with the four of us, two teachers and two students.”

Forty-eight years later, she is calling it a career. Schuppert retired in October 2025 as Pacific’s director of Facilities Management and Campus Public Safety, ending 42 years as a full-time staff member. And everywhere she looks, she sees the impact that she and the facilities team leave on the university every day.

“I just love to see when changes are made,” Schuppert said. “When I see some of the stuff that our guys do and they have impacted our students, it’s great.”

Even before that first summer working on Knight Hall, Schuppert was very familiar with Pacific. Her father, Bud, was Pacific’s director of facilities in the 1970s. Her mother, Gwen, was an administrative assistant in what was then the School of Education.

Attending Pacific helped Schuppert discover her purpose, but not in the way she expected. A three-sport athlete and NAIA All-American in softball who was inducted into the Pacific Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994, Schuppert majored in physical education with ambitions of becoming a teacher and coach. 

However, after a couple of student-teaching experiences, she realized that the classroom was not the place for her. So in 1983, Schuppert joined the facilities staff full-time as a painter. She never left Pacific and never left the facilities team, eventually being promoted to supervisor and then director of facilities management in 2014, the same job her dad held four decades before.

For Schuppert, being selected to lead the facilities team was a testament to hard work paying off and being a lifelong learner.

“For me, it was just working my way up and learning on the job,” she said. “When I graduated, I didn’t know anything about HVAC. I didn’t know anything about plumbing. I’ve learned through the people that I work with. I always say that you don’t have to be an expert in everything. You need to have the right people to know where to get the information.”

Schuppert said that she has tried to lead by example, never asking her crews to do anything that she wasn’t willing to do herself.

Cindy Schuppert Laughing

"Whenever I was hiring people, I would tell them that you don't come to Pacific for the pay, but for the people."

— Cindy Schuppert '83 on Pacific University's family atmosphere

“If they’re doing a big setup, I’d get out there and help,” she said. “Or if they’re digging holes out on a field, I’d go out there and help do that kind of stuff. And I think that being out there and doing it with them made me appreciate them more as well.”

That approach to leadership gained Schuppert the respect of colleagues who worked alongside and for her in the Facilities Department.

“Cindy has always led by example, showing a rare combination of strength, care and commitment,” said Todd Tracewell, who is succeeding Schuppert as acting director of Facilities Management. “Her devotion to Pacific and to the facilities team has shaped the way we work and the pride we take in serving our campuses.”

“I have known Cindy for 30 years and have had the privilege of working with her for 20. In all that time, I have never met a more honest, compassionate or dedicated person,” said Facilities Manager Scott Gobel, who joined the facilities staff in 2003. “Cindy’s work ethic is second to none. She has been an incredible role model for so many of us, and her commitment to Pacific and the facilities team has left a lasting impact that will be felt for years to come.”

Cindy Schuppert '83 In Softball Catcher's Gear
Cindy Schuppert '83 in an early 1980s promotional photo for the Pacific softball team. Schuppert was an NAIA All-American in softball and was inducted into the Pacific Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994. As head coach, she led Boxer softball to the 1998 Northwest Conference championship. Submitted photo.

Though facilities paid the bills, Schuppert never strayed far from the softball diamond. She served as an assistant coach for Judy Sherman through the 1980s and early 1990s before becoming co-head coach with Sherman from 1993 to 1996. 

Schuppert was the solo head coach from 1997 to 1999, leading the Boxers to the Northwest Conference championship and a 30-win season in 1998. In her seven seasons as head coach, Pacific won 193 games and finished in the top three of the NWC standings in all but her final season.

Sports brought Schuppert to Pacific, and it was sports, and in particular the mentorship of Sherman, that taught her the lessons that made her a respected leader.

“Anyone who knows Judy knows that she expects you to be respectful to people, to have some integrity, to be very connected with your teammates,” Schuppert said. “She taught me how you should treat people, how you should treat property. She taught me to be reliable because that’s what she is to me.”

With all of the successes and changes that Schuppert has seen and led over 42 years, there are two specific moments that give her the most satisfaction.

The first was watching how Pacific came together during the COVID-19 pandemic, not only to take care of the Pacific community, but also the Forest Grove community through the university’s drive-thru vaccine clinics.

“Pulling together from different departments on campus and working to do all of those clinics and knowing that you were not just helping Pacific, but the greater community, is something I look back on fondly,” Schuppert said. “I got to work closer with a lot of people that I don’t normally work with. And once it was done, you miss those kinds of connections. I am very proud of Pacific for what we did during that time.”

The second comes every year at commencement. “You see a lot of students that you’ve seen for four years finally make it through, and you know that they’re going to go out and be successful,” she said, “and know that, in maybe some little way, you and your team had something to do with it.”

Schuppert said that Pacific’s family atmosphere kept her in Forest Grove all these years, and it continues to buoy her in retirement. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2025, Schuppert has felt the love not only from her own team but from all across the university, whether stepping up to drive her to infusions, helping navigate the complexities of short- and long-term disability, or just letting her know that they’re thinking of her.

“Sometimes it just takes a person texting me or putting on Messenger, ‘Hey, I hope you’re feeling okay today,’ or ‘I’m thinking about you,’” Schuppert said. “You’d be surprised at how, if you’re starting to feel a bit down, it can bolster you back up.

“Whenever I was hiring people, I would tell them that you don’t come to Pacific for the pay, but for the people.”
 

By

Blake Timm '98
Newsroom
Class of 1983