Mary T. Ludwig

Mary Theresa Ludwig (nee Shannon) died peacefully at her home in Denver Colorado on Saturday, 13 December 2025, with her husband and other family members at her side. She entered in-home hospice care 8 days earlier after living with and struggling with pulmonary hypertension for almost 10 years.

Mary was the oldest of 6 siblings born to William F Shannon and Irene T (Parkins) Shannon. She was born 31 January 1954 in Bethesda Maryland. Her early years were spent in New Jersey in the greater New York City metropolitan area. The family moved to the Kailua/Kaneohe Hawaii communities when Mary was about 8 years old. She always considered Hawaii to be her “home”. She graduated high school from St Francis School in Manoa Hawaii in 1972. That fall she entered New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She attended NMSU for 2 years. In the fall of 1974 she moved to Denver Colorado to live with her uncle and aunt, George and Cathy Parkins and her cousins, Angela and Mark Parkins.

At that time she met her future husband, Ron Ludwig. Their first date was New Years Eve 1977. They married exactly one year later at St Vincent dePaul Catholic Church in Denver. The marriage was blessed with two children (and eventually two grandsons).

Mary spent most of her working career with the City and County of Denver first in the Treasury Division and later with Denver General Hospital. In 1994, Denver General became Denver Health and Hospital Authority (aka Denver Health) and that is where she ended her employment career as an Administrative Assistant to the CEO of Denver Health. She was very proud of her involvement with the mission of Denver Health.

After her “retirement” she volunteered for several years at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on a team that staffed the special exhibits.

Mary is survived by her husband of 47 years, Ron Ludwig, her son David Ludwig, daughter-in-law Dhvani (Rathod) Ludwig and grandson Krish Ludwig; her daughter Andrea (Ludwig) Lucas, son-in-law Jason Lucas and grandson Deklan Lucas; sister Margie (Shannon) Nelson and her husband Rich Nelson and their son Jeremy Nelson (who Mary and Ron always considered another grandchild) all of Calhan Colorado; her brothers James Shannon and William Shannon and sister Claire Shannon all of Kailua Hawaii. She is also survived by brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law and many nieces and nephews as well as her cousins. She was preceded in death by both her parents, her brother Michael Shannon, her parents-in-law and a sister-in-law, Dr Carol (Newhouse) Ludwig.

Mary and Ron had stopped being involved in organized religion over the past 20-25 years. Accordingly, in conformance with Mary’s wishes, there will not be a funeral or memorial service. The family anticipates a gathering to celebrate Mary’s incredible life sometime in the Spring. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, gifts be made to the Wildlife Animal Sanctuary (www.wildanimalsanctuary.org), the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (https://phassociation.org/), the Denver Health Foundation (https://denverhealthfoundation.org/) or to any charitable organization that honors the donor’s memories of Mary.

The family wishes to acknowledge and thank the wonderful staff members who cared for Mary and her family in her final illness including her care teams at Kaiser Permanente, at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and at Brighton Hospice.