Dede Noll Muhler

Dede Noll Muhler July 16, 1945 - Dec. 11, 2015 Dede passed away peacefully at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif., due to traumatic brain injury caused by a fall. She was born in Fayetteville, Ark., and her given name was Mary Lynn Noll. Her mother was Vera Sue McCord and her father was Willis Westbrook Noll. She graduated from Fayetteville High School in 1963 and from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968 with a major in Middle Eastern History. In 1968, she married William Mead Muhler in New Delhi, India. From 1968 to 1970, she served with William in India as a Peace Corps Volunteer working in village-level public health. She later worked as a Peace Corps training project administrator in Iran in 1974, and worked with the World Student Christian Federation in Nigeria from 1974 to 1976. Dede loved nature and worked for 42 years as a pruning specialist, enhancing the health and beauty of small trees and gardens throughout the Bay Area. She was a long time member of Montclair Presbyterian Church, and served as Clerk of Session and as the moderator of the Presbytery of San Francisco. Dede was a volunteer at the California Genealogical Society, and for many years, she was the volunteer East Bay coordinator for Knitting Pals by the Bay which produced knitted caps for thousands of cancer patients. She travelled extensively throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa; enjoyed mountaineering in the Sierras and the Himalayas; and climbed all of the peaks in the Kita Alps of central Japan. Dede loved golf and was a course champion at the Chabot Golf Course in Oakland, and was a Course Rater at several Bay Area public and private golf courses, teeing off from the men's tees. As an avid cyclist, she participated twice in the California Aids Ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles and took part in century rides throughout California. She is survived by her husband, William; their daughter, Tamara Christine Muhler and grandchildren, Kira Louise Muhler Reyes and William Generoso Muhler Reyes; their son, Nathaniel Westbrook Muhler; her sisters, Sandra Noll Hammond and Jan Elizabeth McClurg and her step-brothers Herbert Lewis, Jr. and David Lewis. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2016 at the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living, 5000 Clarewood Drive, Oakland. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be sent for a Regional Parks memorial bench to the attention of William Muhler at 6937 Village Parkway #2280, Dublin CA 94568.