The sudden death of a student at the Fuqua School of Business has the Duke community and the student’s family and friends remembering a life filled with adventure and dedication to giving back.
Jessica Caroe, 26, was a rising second-year MBA student. She and her fiancé, Robert Storrs, 30, died May 22 in Paducah, Ky., on Interstate 24, after an 18-wheel tractor-trailer hit their motorcycle from behind while they were stopped in traffic. Storrs had proposed to Caroe the night before at the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Caroe’s father Alan noted in the eulogy he gave for his daughter.
Fuqua officials will work with students to hold a memorial service to remember Caroe when students return to Duke in the fall, said associate dean Russ Morgan.
Caroe is survived by her parents, Karen and Alan Caroe of Las Cruces, N.M., and seven younger siblings.
“She was honestly the smartest person I ever knew. She was so caring and so loving. If you needed something she was there for you, and she [was] the best at everything that she ever tried to do,” Caroe’s brother Austin said. “She did more in her 26 years on Earth than most people do in a lifetime. She never wasted a minute.”
Austin compared his sister’s aptitude for learning new things to the character Francisco in Ayn Rand’s book, “Atlas Shrugged.”
A love for service
Just as Caroe did with most things in her life, she planned to use her MBA from Fuqua to help others.
Although Caroe had a summer position with paper company Georgia Pacific in Atlanta, Ga., following her cross-country motorcycle trip, her central passion was working with and on behalf of inner-city children.
She taught in inner-city Houston for two years through Teach for America and then worked for three years fundraising for Yes Prep, a Houston charter school that serves disadvantaged children. During her time at Yes Prep, Caroe grew the development team and raised millions of dollars to fund the school’s operations.
“She was a very intensely loyal friend,” said her friend and Yes Prep colleague Lindsey Windham. “So many people felt cared for by her. So many people felt she would fight for them and advocate for them. She would tell you the hard truth, and she would just love you through it.”
Thousands of dollars have been donated in Caroe’s memory to a scholarship fund at Yes Prep.
At Fuqua, Caroe was a leader who looked for ways to give back to society before she thought of herself, Morgan noted.
She joined a number of clubs at Fuqua, including the Net Impact social entrepreneurship club and the consulting club and was a member of the academic cabinet, Morgan said.
Caroe’s father noted how his daughter loved the challenge she found through the academics and people at Duke, quoting the University motto, “Eruditio et Religio.” He added that his daughter chose Duke for its commitment to social entrepreneurship.
“She really stood out in my mind,” Gavan Fitzsimons, R. David Thomas professor of marketing and psychology at Fuqua, said. “She just genuinely struck you as a truly good person whose heart was full of gold. She was an incredibly gifted young woman in terms of her intellectual abilities.”
‘Perfect for each other’
The newly engaged couple, who dated for three years, were passing through Kentucky on their way to Boise, Idaho, to see the city where Storrs had received a job promotion. The two planned to get married in summer 2013 and move to Boise after Caroe’s graduation from Fuqua.
After a funeral service near Caroe’s parents’ home in Las Cruces, N.M., Caroe was buried alongside Storrs in his home state of Florida.
“They were perfect for each other,” said Austin Caroe. “You couldn’t find a better couple.”
Caroe’s friends and family members recall her as someone who excelled at everything she tried from a young age.
The oldest of eight children, Caroe spent her Pennsylvania childhood competing in gymnastics and won a national title in the vault when she was 14 years old. She planned to compete in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, but a last-minute change in Olympic rules barred competitors under 16 from the competition. Caroe would have been 15 during the Games.
Homeschooled from elementary through high school, Caroe completed requirements for her high school diploma and enrolled in Samford University, in Birmingham, Ala., when she was 16 years old. After two years in Alabama, she transferred to Georgetown University, where she graduated magna cum laude at the time most of her peers were still college sophomores.
She was also an accomplished singer and pianist and won a national title in speech and debate when she was in high school, Caroe’s brother noted. As a 14-year-old in Pennsylvania, Caroe chaired the state’s Young Republicans group, where she organized other members who were already in college. She later interned for the Department of Justice and then-U.S. Senator Rick Santorum.
“She could have easily made a run for the presidency way, way, way down the road,” Austin Caroe said. “She was that good. I never saw her bested in a political discussion—she was such an articulate and smart speaker.”
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