Mary Judith "Judy" Wohlhueter

Mary Judith "Judy" Wohlhueter passed away on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, with her son at her bedside. She was 83 years old and had suffered from Alzheimer's for several years.

She is preceded in death by her parents Harold and Eleanor Potter, her husband of 57 years Robert "Bob" Wohlhueter (in July 2020), and two brothers. She is survived by her son Alexander and daughter-in-law Brinsley, two grandsons, two sisters, and numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Judy was born in 1942 to a dairy farming family near Buffalo, New York and went on to have a long career as a counselor and avocation as an oboist. In 1959, she was valedictorian of her high school class at Griffith Institute in Springville, NY. She attended undergraduate at Oberlin College and graduated with a degree in Psychology with Honors. She earned a Master's degree from Boston University in Psychology and continued her certification at the University of St. Thomas in St Paul.

She married Bob after her college graduation and they lived in many cities together: Boston, MA, Madison, WI, Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, Indianapolis, IN, Minneapolis, MN, and Atlanta, GA. Judy always found ways to meet friends and make music and volunteer time for causes that were important to her.

She bore her son in Germany just months after moving there. She learned to parent in German,and played with many scientist musicians she met through the Universität Freiburg.

In Minneapolis, Judy founded the Seward Community Band in 1977. It is still going strong, now known as the Seward Concert Band. She also started her career as a counselor in the pioneering chemical dependency program at Saint Mary's Hospital. It was challenging but rewarding work that she continued through the 1980s. She was active in the women's movement, including annual Take Back the Night marches, and served her community volunteering at the Walk-In Counseling Center, which was unique in its day. She was also a dedicated environmentalist who started recycling bottles and cans when you had to haul them yourself to the local food co-op.

In 1990, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recruited Bob, and they left the Twin Cities and their son behind and relocated to Atlanta. Before long they bought a house near Candler Park and Little Five Points. Soon Judy joined another ensemble, the Vivace Winds, a woodwind quintet. They performed frequently in the Atlanta area, sometimes with guest artists, including many concerts at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. She also attended music camps devoted to improvisation to expand her musical abilities. She joined the Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) alongside her husband; she was remembered for leading songs at award dinners, which will come as no surprise to those who knew Judy. She was a committed member of the Grandmothers for Peace organization ever since she became a grandmother in 2009.

In 2019, Judy & Bob moved back to the Twin Cities to spend more time with their grandsons. The Covid pandemic had other ideas. Still, in these later years, she joined her family for many dinners, outings, and school plays, and continued to see live music and dance, fund a wide array of progressive nonprofits, and show up at rallies and marches into her 80s.

She had many other interests throughout life, such as her beloved cats in Minneapolis and Atlanta. Besides classical and chamber music, she also loved old-time music like we heard most Saturdays on A Prairie Home Companion.

Besides living abroad, Judy & Bob were well-traveled. They often visited old friends all over Europe, but also explored exotic rivers, canoeing the Zambezi, the Cuyabeno in Ecuador, and rafting the Colorado. She had a sense of delight with the world that did not disappear with age. She would always pose with sculptures and statues in funny ways, break into song whenever the moment inspired her, and make music with anything around her, even wine glasses and cutlery at the dinner table. Until age 75 she maintained her signature hairstyle, a long braid coiled atop her head. And as the daughter of a dairy farmer, she was well known for her devotion to half-and-half and ice cream.

The family will host a visitation at 1666 Coffman on Sunday October 25th from 2-4 PM. A memorial service in the Springville, NY area will take place in 2026, to be announced at a later date.

Please honor her memory by bursting into song at an inappropriate time and place, wetting your finger and making a wine glass resonate, or ordering extra ice cream. Or make a donation in her honor to PBS, your local Public Radio station, or the Seward Concert Band.