peacefully at home in Boulder, Colorado on Sunday, January 12, 2025. She was 87
years old. Born and raised in Denver, she graduated from South High School and
moved to Boulder where she attended the University of Colorado. Later she obtained
her master’s in counseling and all the course work toward a PhD in Psychology also at
CU, Boulder.
In 1962 she married Franz Gunther Mohling with whom she had 2 children, Shanti and
Tor. Franz and Judith divorced in 1969. Judith was an avid runner, hiker and lover of
nature, attributes she shared with her children.
In addition to her many years working as a psychotherapist, Judith worked tirelessly for
peace and nuclear disarmament. In the late 1980s, Judith was central to Colorado
Freeze Voter, a nonprofit that worked to educate elected officials about the dangers of
nuclear weapons, specifically the nearby nuclear neighbor, Rocky Flats — a plutonium
pit manufacturing facility 8 miles from Boulder, essential to the US nuclear weapon
complex. In 1988, Judith spearheaded a letter writing campaign to Governor Roy
Romer about the illegal burning of plutonium contaminated waste at Rocky Flats.
Thanks to this successful campaign, which garnered more than 5,000 letters mailed to
the State House in Denver, Governor Romer stopped the burn, which would eventually
lead to the 1989 FBI raid on Rocky Flats. The surprise raid, led by Judith’s longtime
colleague, FBI agent Jon Lipsky, would eventually lead to shuttering the plutonium pit
factory, a central facility to US nuclear weapons manufacturing. After Judith’s work with
Freeze Voter, she became integral to the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
(RMPJC). Together with LeRoy Moore, Judith formed the backbone of opposition to
spurious cleanup operations at Rocky Flats. In the 1990s, Judith created the Rocky
Flats Ethics Study Group that brought together anti-nuclear activists, members of the
US Department of Energy, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Colorado
Department for Health and the Environment to discuss cleanup operations across
adversarial communities in an effort to together understand best practices. She often
encouraged friends and colleagues to adopt her practice of “360 degrees of
compassion”, to understand other points of view with respect and curiosity. Judith was a
longtime proponent of nuclear guardianship, a practice of isolating radioactive waste
from the environment in a retrievable monitored configuration — “guarding” the waste,
which can remain carcinogenic and mutagenic for millennia, and then passing that
responsibility on to the next generation. The Rocky Flats Nuclear Guardianship Project
led to a collaboration between RMJC and Naropa University that continues to this day.
Judith was a longstanding member of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, and
former Board Chair, lobbying yearly in Washington, DC for nuclear disarmament ,
radioactive waste cleanup, and advocating for the health and safety of workers and the
general public. Her long-running monthly column for the Colorado Daily, The Peace
Train, articulately argued for social justice and change.
Judith’s life embodied the expression of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing
that ever has.” As a psychotherapist and peace activist, Judith affected positive change
for individuals and for the betterment of society. She will be sorely missed, but found in
every encouragement to uplift others, to live their best lives; and every effort to foster a
culture of peace of understanding.
She is survived by her children Shanti and Tor, her daughter-in-law Linda, her
grandchildren Carmen, Ayla and Payne, her brother Dan and her niece Julia.
A Memorial Service is planned for May 31, 2025. Donations in her honor may be made
to the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center:
https://www.coloradogives.org/story/Vi1mlf
