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 Michelle Grace Combs
February 28, 1985-October 1, 2005
Michelle would walk from one end to the other of Main Street in Pleasanton and come home with two job offers. She was the kind of child who loved to work. Her enthusiasm was infectious and she brightened every doorway the entered. One of her bosses said "Michelle couldn't always make change but we couldn't fire her. She was our best employee. Whatever change she gave away she made up for in sales and good will." She had worked more jobs in her 20 years than both of her parents have had in their lifetime. Not that she was a poor employee and couldn't keep a job. She just wanted to try everything. Among her many jobs she bagged groceries, worked odd jobs in a lighting fixture store, made and sold espresso drinks, stayed up for days at a time creating corsages and boutonnieres during prom week, hosted at a few restaurants, worked two years at the Alameda County Fair selling lipstick and babysat children, mostly twins. One year she walked from business to business raising hundreds of dollars to register for a modeling competition.
Michelle was diagnosed in elementary school with learning disabilities, what used to be called Dyslexia. What she lacked in book smarts she made up for with tenacious good humor. Like many children with learning disabilities she compensated. She excelled in sports, soccer and track (hurdles) and hands on classes. Schools teach the way the majority of students learn. When a student is an experiential learner like Michelle, sometimes reading and conceptual subjects like math are like foreign languages.
When Michelle graduated from high school she had a C+ GPA, a combined SAT score of less than 800, and the desire to move away from home and attend a four-year college, not likely with her grades and test scores. Her one-year at community college was bittersweet. She loved the college level soccer she played but felt that socially she hadn't really moved beyond high school. She wanted more. And she found it.
With help from a college coach Michelle applied to and was accepted to the SALT Center at the U of A, in large part because of her high IQ. With the help of a counselor and tutoring in each of her classes she achieved a B average her first year. She came to believe that she could be the successful businesswoman she wanted to be. She blossomed.
When she died the following fall, she was living her dream. She was a successful student in the University's business school, majoring in retail sciences and minoring in psychology. She belonged to Alpha Kappa Psi, a national business fraternity. She had lived in a dorm and then in a house with her best friends. She took road trips with her friends and was planning to spend a semester abroad.
So, dreams do come true.
The Michelle Combs Foundation (MCF) is dedicated to the premise that everyone can succeed. Students with learning disabilities can attend universities and colleges. MCF is collaboration between Alpha Kappa Psi and Michelle's family and friends to raise donations for scholarships for students like Michelle who major in business. The first scholarship will be for one student at the SALT Center at the University of Arizona in the fall of 2007. After those scholarships are endowed (funded in perpetuity) the Foundation will fund more scholarships at similar universities nationwide.
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 Michelle was born on February 26, 1985 in Berkeley, California and lived her whole life in Pleasanton, attending Walnut Grove Elementary School, Harvest Park Middle School and Amador Valley High School. She was in her second year as a retail major at the University of Arizona in Tucson when she died in a motorcycle accident on Saturday, October 1, 2005.
She loved soccer, mostly the running, and track, especially hurdles where she lettered; candy; babysitting lots of children but specializing in twins; driving her jeep too fast; listening to all kinds of music; traveling and road trips; lip gloss and nail polish; candy; hiking and snowboarding; shopping and negotiating for good deals; juggling, astronomy and weather, and her business fraternity at U of A, Alpha Kappa Psi.
 Michelle loved to laugh and was always cheery. She loved children and they loved her in return. She had a special gift to be with them. She lived her life 100%. One of her favorite quotations was: "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today."
Michelle is missed so very much by her family, her mom–Jocelyn Combs; dad–Richard Combs and his wife Baerbel Steffestun; sister–Cassie Combs and her fiancé Bruce Aasen and their daughter Sierra Michelle Aasen (Michelle's namesake); grandparents–Dr. Robert and Betty Combs and Sheila Lamson.
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UA student killed in motorcycle collision
By Holly Wells, Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday, October 6, 2005
A UA student known for her love of children and her positive outlook on life was killed Saturday night in a motorcycle collision.
Michelle Grace Combs, a 20-year-old retailing and consumer sciences sophomore, died after the motorcycle she was riding collided with a car around 10:40 p.m. at South Country Club Road and East Beverly Drive, said Officer Dallas Wilson, Tucson Police Department spokesman.
The driver of the motorcycle, Curtis Taylor, 23, was badly injured and transported to University Medical Center where he remains in critical condition, said Loretta McKenzie, UMC spokeswoman.
Neither Combs nor Taylor were wearing helmets at the time of the accident.
Richard Verdugo, 37, was cited with an enhanced penalty for failing to yield in a left turn lane and for registration and insurance violations, Wilson said.
He was booked into Pima County Jail for driving on a suspended license and later released.
Combs and Taylor worked together at El Parador. The two had just gotten off work and had probably decided to go on a joy ride, said Brianna York, Combs' roommate.
"I don't think she'd ever been on one," York said. "She left her purse and everything at her work, so she was coming back. They probably just wanted to go for a ride around the corner."
They became worried when Combs did not come home Saturday night, and they began looking for her, York said.
"We knew that her coworker had been in an accident and his passenger had died, but no one had any idea it was her," Sarah Saul said, a roommate of Combs. "We looked for her everywhere, we went to her boyfriend's house and when she wasn't there we went to UMC."
It was there that Combs' roommates, York and Saul, learned what had happened and later helped to identify her body.
"We didn't want to believe it was her," Saul said. "I just can't stop thinking about that moment when we realized it was her."
Combs was born in Berkeley, Calif., and lived in Pleasanton, Calif., before attending the UA, said mother Jocelyn Combs in an e-mailed statement.
"Michelle loved to laugh and was always cheery," Jocelyn Combs wrote. "She loved children and they loved her in return. She had a special gift to be with them."
Michelle Combs babysat many children throughout her life and specialized in babysitting twins. She also enjoyed hiking, snowboarding and being involved with Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity on campus, Jocelyn Combs wrote.
Combs also loved candy, lip gloss, speeding and trying new things, York said.
Casie Squires, who met Michelle through the business fraternity, said Michelle was very into helping people and making them smile.
"Everyone was touched by her positive aura and her happiness," Squires said. "That's what she'll be remembered for."
Combs was not sure what she wanted to do after school, but she wanted to have lots of children and travel, York said.
Saul said she's never experienced a death of someone so close before.
"It's hard to fall asleep, and it's hard to wake up," she said. "I keep expecting her to walk through the door. I keep thinking she's on vacation or something."
UA students and students from other universities have left messages of sorrow on Combs' message board on www.facebook.com. and myspace.com. Many of the students wrote that Combs' had touched their lives and was an inspiration to those around her.
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