Meredith Lucille McMurdo, 93, of Maple Valley, WA, passed away Friday April 12th, 2019 surrounded by her loving family in Baton Rouge, LA. She set sail for the stars she loved rejoining her husband Captain Robert McMurdo (USN Ret.) who preceded her in death in 2003. Daughter of the late Albert Joseph and Fairy Luverna Scholz, she was born in Greybull, Wyoming on April 18th, 1925, and raised in Red Lodge and Whitefish, MT. It was in Whitefish where she met the love of her life Bob McMurdo while he was doing exhibition diving off a platform in Whitefish Lake. Family legend has it that, as young teenagers, Bob jokingly teased and plopped Meredith into the lake and then he quickly had to rescue her since she hadn't yet learned how to swim. It was obvious kismet. Beginning their lives together in and around majestic Glacier National Park that would forever live as a foundation for her heart, she went on to live at the intersection of many important moments in our country's history. During World War II, her soon-to-be husband was at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and after graduating was stationed with the Pacific fleet. A military family, they were often on the move, raising their daughter Cristine in San Diego, Rhode Island, and Hawaii where Meredith became the head of the Navy Wives at Pearl Harbor and then finally moving to Seattle when Bob retired from the Navy and joined Boeing. Meredith and Bob purchased a resort lodge with cabins, a restaurant, and gift shop at the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. Meredith ran the lodge full time while Bob commuted to Boeing. After the tragic loss of the crew of Apollo 1, Boeing then assigned Bob as the Director and Head of Safety for Boeing at Mission Control in Houston, TX. There they became part of the NASA community for all of the remaining Apollo missions, Skylab, and then the International Space Station. Alongside astronauts and engineers as neighbors and friends (John and Annie Glenn, Neil and Janet Armstrong, Alan and Louise Shepard, et al.) they made history together. Annie Glenn asked Meredith to replace her as the organist at their church when she and Col. Glenn left Houston. A breakthrough woman of her times, Meredith was an entrepreneur and started a machine shop in Houston making custom engineered parts for industry and delivering them in the back of her white Cadillac. An accomplished musician she started and ran a Hawaiian music group of great renown in Houston with friends from NASA, performing at the Petroleum Club, and with the crew and scientists of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso, among others. Meredith, an incredible light, let everyone she ever met know how beautiful, how loved, and how valued they were; one of the many gifts she shared through her joy and music up until she took her last big smiles at a world she truly adored. She leaves a brother, Arthur Scholz of Cocoa Beach, FL; a sister Margaret Butler of Lago Vista, TX; and a daughter, Cristine McMurdo-Wallis and her husband Thomas Eldon Anderson of Baton Rouge, LA; and cherished nephews and nieces. We will learn from your example for years. We love you Meredith McMurdo, you magnificent soul.
A celebration of the Life of Meredith Lucille McMurdo will be held on Friday, August 23, 2019 at 1:00pm at the Tahoma National Cemetery, 18600 SE 240th St, Kent, WA 98042.
In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to The Hospice of Baton Rouge so that others may experience the incredible care and comfort they bring during the transition from life. Donation may be made online at https://hospicebr.org/giving/donate or by mail at The Hospice of Baton Rouge, 3600 Florida Boulevard, Baton Rouge, LA 70806