Bear Capron
May 24, 1950-Dec. 22, 2022
Mountain View, California
Submitted by Seth

Bear Capron, 72, a respected drama educator, died peacefully in his sleep at home in Mountain View on December 22, his husband of 30 years, composer Alva Henderson, at his side. Having attended Addison Elementary School in Palo Alto before moving with his family to Washington, DC, Bear returned to the Bay Area as a freshman at Stanford in 1968, but then left the following year to study acting in New York City. At age 20, he set off with his backpack to explore Europe and settled in Amsterdam, where he graduated from de Theaterschool Amsterdam. The theatrical duo he formed with Pamela Koevoets, “The Bam Sisters,” performed original improv all over Europe, to great acclaim. Capron was also active in the early days of the gay rights movement. Having been told he had to give up his citizenship when he became a Dutch citizen in the 1970s, he protested outside the US Consulate in Amsterdam holding a placard that proclaimed, “Mom and Dad, I can’t come home!” against being required to accept a special entry on his visa - equivalent, he said, to the Nazi “pink triangle” - to indicate his “psychopathic” sexuality, in order to visit his parents and siblings in the US. He moved home to California after 18 years in Holland to be closer to his family and to Alva, the love of his life, whom he married in 1993, surrounded by friends and family. Over the years they were legally married anew several times, as the law caught up with love. Capron headed the drama program at the Castilleja School for 20 years, during which time he directed more than forty professionally staged student productions. His skill as a teacher—combining high standards with his love of playfulness, creativity and human connection—inspired generations of students, many of whom say that his gifts profoundly changed their lives. He died of metastasized pancreatic cancer, with which he had been gracefully dancing for over five years. In October 2022, he published a collection of essays and stories from his life, the title of which - Easy to Love - says it all. In addition to Henderson, Bear is survived by his sister, Margie, of Washington, DC, brothers Seth (Jane Rekedal) of Aromas, CA, and Alex (Kathleen West) of Newmarket, NH, nieces Gwen and Kelsey Capron, and nephews Charlie, Christopher, and Andrew Capron, and Jared Capron-Brown. Alva and his Capron family invite you to share in a celebration of Bear’s life on Sunday, March 19th at 1:00pm at the Palo Alto Unitarian Church.

Tags: arts/media, teacher/educator