In planning for the use of education in World War II, Capen was critical of the way that educated men had been drafted into military assignments during World War I, which he said made little use of their individual intellects. Capen died in 1956 after a lengthy illness. Capen married Grace Duncan Wright. She was the daughter of Carroll D. Wright, the first president of Clark College. Grace Wright was the 1929-1930 president of a Buffalo women's social club known as the Twentieth Century Club. In 1934, Capen was one of three founders of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The University at Buffalo honored Capen with the dedication of a campus building, Capen Hall. The university has established the Samuel P. Capen Chair of Poetry and the Humanities. The Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk is an annual guided tour of private gardens that surround the university's campus.