Sue K. Young, who for 29 years served with grace and unstinting devotion in partnership with her husband, Chancellor Emeritus Charles E. Young, died Sept. 28 at her home in Thousand Oaks. She was 69 and had been battling breast cancer since the early '90s.

As UCLA's First Lady from 1968 to 1997, Sue Young garnered enormous respect for her warmth and energy in representing UCLA at thousands of public functions. She also was a published author, poet and lyricist and an advocate for higher education, the arts, and women's healthcare in the local, national and international arena. She had been, since 1999, the First Lady of the University of Florida in Gainesville, where Charles Young now is president.

"Sue Young made enormous personal and professional contributions to UCLA, and we are all beneficiaries of her commitment to excellence, her passion for maintaining the highest standards and her unfailing ability to showcase the university in the best possible ways," said Chancellor Albert Carnesale. "Together with Chancellor Emeritus Young, she was a true partner in UCLA's growth and success. Her passing is a profound loss for the entire UCLA family."

Born in Colton, Calif., she and Charles Young met as students at San Bernardino Valley College and married in 1950. The couple began their UCLA careers in 1960, when Charles Young joined the administration of Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy, whom he succeeded as chancellor.

"Every function I've been to at their home, she's there. Most of the major functions throughout Los Angeles, Sue Young is there," once reminisced UCLA alumnus and Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson in UCLA Today. "Always supportive, always there with the right words, always there with the right attitude to make things successful, to make people want to be part of the university."

During the 1980s, she worked diligently to win official recognition of a spouse's role in academic leadership. Her actions prompted the University of California Board of Regents in 1987 to establish the formal, though unpaid, position of Associate of the Chancellor.

"Her dedication to this campus was unsung most of the time," recalled John Sandbrook, assistant provost of the College of Letters & Science, who served for nearly two decades as Charles Young's assistant. But no one ever doubted that her dedication to UCLA was as true and as strong as her husband's, he said.

"There was an elegance about her and a standard of perfection that made us all understand in a professional, yet personal, way that we had to meet for the sole good of the institution. For nearly 30 years, Sue lived up to that standard and exceeded it," Sandbrook said.

When Charles Young retired in 1997, few people on campus realized how close his wife was to dying, Sandbrook said. But she rallied with the help of her physicians. "I am very grateful to providence and the fine work of Sue's doctors that she and Chuck enjoyed the four years they had together after he retired," said the assistant provost.

In addition to Chancellor Emeritus Young, Sue Young is survived by her two children, Charles Young Jr. and Elizabeth Young-Apstein, and seven grandchildren.