November 5, 1943 – July 25, 2020
On this page, the Printwell family is honoring Suzanne Marie Howard Frink who passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 25, 2020 at the age of 76.
Suzanne had been a member of the Printwell staff since 2002 and made an indelible contribution to our company as a sales executive and strategic leader.
Sue grew up in Highland Park, Michigan and attended Immaculata High School and Marygrove College in Detroit and Knight/Ridder School of Management in Miami, Florida.
Suzanne began her professional career as an advertising manager in the newspaper publishing industry and worked at the Detroit Free Press and the Philadelphia Bulletin.
She later became President and Co-owner of University Lithoprinters, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Throughout her career, Suzanne has been involved in many industry organizations and associations. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce, the Ann Arbor Art Association, the Printing Industries of Michigan and the Michigan Printing Week Association Committee. She was the 1995 recipient of the Ben Franklin Individual of the Year Award.
Suzanne was strong and confident with infectious optimism and energy. She will be missed by everyone who knew her.
I first met Sue in the mid-1990s when she was an owner and executive at University Lithoprinters in Ann Arbor. At that time, I was working as prepress manager for another local company and we had an opportunity to work jointly on some customer projects. As I was still a youngster at the time, it stands out for me how she expressed in the warmest way an interest in my technical development, showing me the equipment and allowing me to interact with the production team at U Litho without hesitation.
During the following years, I got to know Sue through her participation in the industry associations, first the Ann Arbor Litho Club, which she encouraged me to become involved with, and later the Printing Industries of Michigan and the Advertising Production Club of Detroit, where I had the opportunity to meet and get to know so many remarkable industry people like Suzanne.
More recently, I have had the pleasure of working directly with her for the past three years since I joined the Printwell staff. For me, she was a continuous source of positivity on our sales team and I, on many occasions, was able to rely on her for guidance and advice on some of the more difficult aspects of printing sales and sales management.
I also wanted to say a few things about Sue Frink that extend beyond my own personal recollections and that others who knew her and worked with over the years will agree with me about, I believe.
The first of these is professionalism. She was always prepared to present herself and the company. Every day in the office, in meetings with customers and at the many functions, dinner events and after-hours gatherings Suzanne was always ready to go with tremendous energy and attentiveness. Even after a couple of glasses of wine, she was ever ready for business conversation and engagement. I cannot tell you how many times she reminded me that she was a professional and that we were all professionals and should never forget that.
In this regard, Suzanne was a business pioneer. It is mentioned in her obituary that she was the recipient of the Ben Franklin Individual of the Year Award, which is the most prestigious award that someone from the printing industry in Michigan can receive.
She received this honor in 1995. If you were to look down the list of individuals who are recipients of the Ben Franklin award, going back to 1983, you will see that Suzanne Frink is the first woman and the only woman to receive it for the next twenty years. This is a tremendous accomplishment and points to the second quality of Suzanne that I would like to highlight and that is: tenacity.
Like all of us, Suzanne faced many challenges, twists and turns in her professional career but she never let this slow her down. She came to Printwell in 2002 with significant experience behind her. She had a vision and helped Paul Borg and the rest of the Printwell team take the company to new heights of success and recognition in the local community. It is a fact that Suzanne was responsible for Printwell receiving the Ben Franklin Company of the Year Award in 2013.
Even toward the end, when she had faced some difficult heath setbacks, her tenacity was came shining through. While we were all working from home, due to the COVID situation, she insisted on participating in the Zoom sales meetings and continuing to discuss account work and ongoing needs of her customers even though she was fighting for her life at the same time.
Finally, I want to say that Suzanne was always a very kind and caring person in her professional work. We have received so many messages from her clients and others from the industry over the past few days and, while I cannot read them all due to time considerations, every one of them has pointed to this overriding aspect of her personality.
Suzanne was truly loved by all of us and, I want to say, again on behalf of everyone who worked with her, that she will be dearly missed.
I was her cousin i was her favorite she was kind hearted woman i will miss her her mother was my great grandmother she would do anything for anyone i love u cuz