Judy Wentworth

It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Judith “Judy” Wentworth, 83, wife, mother and grandmother, who died on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 from complications due to cancer. Judy was born on June 21,1942 in New York City to Dorothy Andrews Wentworth and John Mandeville Wentworth. Her father worked for the Pillsbury Company. After the birth of her younger brother, John David Wentworth, in 1947 the family moved to Ridgewood, N.J. where Judy attended public schools and learned to play tennis. Judy was a gifted and graceful tennis player and in 1959 she won the Bergen County Girls Singles Tennis Championship. Some of her fondest childhood memories were made at Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire where her parents owned a cottage. This wood home perch on a bank above the lake was where her mother baked and her father puttered around fixing things while Judy and her brother spent countless hours in the lake. In 1960, Judy graduated from Ridgewood High School and left home to attend Chatham College in Pittsburgh, PA, where she studied liberal arts. In 1962, Judy transferred to The Pennsylvania State University so that she could pursue a major in biochemistry. Upon graduation, Judy secured a job in a lab on campus where she remembers spending her days “cutting up mice.” Not convinced that a career in science was her calling, Judy resigned and took off “Thelma and Louise-style” in a car with a girlfriend headed West. Landing in Colorado Springs, Judy found employment at Penrose Hospital. From Colorado, Judy moved on to Chicago where she worked at the University of Chicago Medical School and caught the eye of Fitzhugh Seumas MacManus Mullan, a medical student and civil rights organizer. The two were married in 1968 and moved to NYC for Fitzhugh’s medical internship. Influenced by the social activism of the times and a desire to help others, Judy enrolled at The Columbia School of Social Work in 1970. While at Columbia, Judy discovered that she was pregnant. Her professors encouraged her to stay in school and she was able to graduate by attending classes up to and after giving birth to a daughter, Meghan Elizabeth, in January of 1972. That same year, her husband accepted a job with the United States Public Health Service in Santa Fe, and within months the couple was off across the country with a six-month-old baby strapped in the back of a Volkswagen Beetle. As a child, Judy wanted to be a cowgirl, so the vast desert and open skies of the Southwest suited her, sparking a life-long love affair with all things New Mexican. Settling into life in Santa Fe, Judy pursued part-time social work and full-time mothering. But as fate would have it Judy would not live out her dream life in New Mexico. In 1974 her husband, at age 32, was diagnosed with cancer. The family moved to Maryland so that Fitzhugh could be treated at Bethesda Naval Hospital. This would prove to be some of her most difficult years as her husband fought for his life while she cared for him and her young daughter. Miraculously, during this dark period, Judy discovered that she was pregnant. The couple took it as a sign that Fitzhugh would live, which he did, and in December of 1975 they welcomed their miracle daughter, Caitlin Patricia. Fitzhugh's health improved and the young family started a new life, settling in Garrett Park, Maryland and adopting a 3-year-old son, Jason Michael, in 1977. Grateful to have three children to raise, Judy threw her heart and soul into mothering, joining the parent-run co-op nursery school in town, setting up a toddler play group in her home and serving as brownie scout leader, making life-long friends in the process. Judy would go back to social work part-time during these years, serving at Children’s National Hospital and Suburban Hospital. In 1984, Judy’s dream to live in Santa Fe became a reality again when her husband transferred jobs to the New Mexico state government and the family headed back to Santa Fe. While living in Santa Fe, Judy soaked up the best of the west, rafting the Grand Canyon, hiking and skiing in the mountains and camping at Ghost Ranch before moving back “home” again to Garrett Park in 1986. Judy had many skills. She was an accomplished knitter, winning first prize in the Montgomery County Fair in 1981 for an Irish sweater. She had magical hands crafting needle work, knitting baby clothing, and sewing matching dresses for her daughters. A life-long tennis player, Judy was an athlete before that was common for a woman. She once rode her bike across Iowa. Swimming in a lake was something she thought about all winter. She skied anywhere she could and she loved yoga. Judy’s laugh could carry a party. Entertaining was a passion: she was the heart and soul of many groups, listening deeply to those she cared about with a ready smile, fully enjoying the company of her friends and family. Judy and Fitzhugh divorced in 1998. She remade her life by making new friends, taking classes at the Washington School of Psychiatry and opening her own private practice in 1999. She also co-ran a small business called Eldercare Connections helping families with transitions for older adults and joined groups including her favorite “Over 50s” group. In 2001, through mutual friends, Judy met her second husband, Robert Luke. They married in 2004 and began a life together, enjoying travel to many distant locales ranging from Paris (a favorite) to Costa Rica. They even ventured to Alaska for their honeymoon. In her later years, Judy was a hands-on grandmother pushing strollers and taking her grandson to yoga class (always followed by ice cream). She was a passionate and creative gardener who could be found in her front yard rooting around her azaleas. Judy is well remembered by many for her passion for color in her landscaping, her dress, and her art choices. She was energetic, persistent, compassionate and full of life. She will be missed by those who loved her for her joyful, adventurous and kind spirit. She is survived by her husband Robert Luke; her brother John; her children Meghan Mullan, Caitlin Crain, and Jason Mullan; her sons-in-law Michael Petrilli and C. Wesley Crain, and four grandchildren: Niccolo and Leandro Petrilli and Seamus and Lilia Crain. She will be missed by her many friends and extended family members.

Judy Wentworth

June 21, 1942 - November 11, 2025