Elizabeth Murdock Matsch

1930 - 2017

Elizabeth Murdock (Lib) Matsch (87), wife of Senior U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch, died on October 18, 2017 at her home in Boulder County, CO. She was born in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 1930, to the late Judge John Edgar Murdock and Sarah Lynch Murdock, both of Greensburg, PA. She graduated from Smith College in 1952 and, after teaching at Park School of Buffalo, moved to Denver and taught 3rd and 4th grades at Kent School and then Graland. On June 28, 1958, she married Richard P. Matsch, and together they had five children. Lib was very active in the Denver community with the Smith College Club of Colorado, Tuesday Morning Class, the Denver Children's Home, and the Cherry Creek Parks and Trail Association. Lib loved the outdoors and was an avid horsewoman. She rode for many years with the Arapahoe Hunt and competed in shows and events. In 1981, Lib discovered therapeutic horseback riding, which led to a twenty-two year volunteer career starting with a program in South Denver, and then, after her move to Boulder County in 1989, with Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center. Lib was a devout Catholic, and was a parishioner of Church of the Risen Christ and St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish. She was preceded in death by her parents and by her brother, Lt. Cdr. John Edgar Murdock, Jr. her sister, Sarah Martha Murdock Bolster, and her youngest daughter, Elizabeth Ann Matsch. She is survived by her husband, by her son, Dan Matsch, her daughters, Katherine Daley, Molly Briggs, and Marti Matsch, and six grandchildren. Donations can be made to Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center, 11968 Mineral Road, Longmont, CO 80504 or at https://www.ctrcinc.org. Click on "In Honor of Lib Match." Please visit greenwoodmyersfuneral.com for more about Lib and to offer condolences.