Beloved Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Sister, Aunt, Mentor & Friend
By Link Mueller
behalf of Link.
Good Morning, I am Becky Mueller, Chip Mueller's oldest granddaughter. My sister Cassie and I are going to
read some memories our Granddad wrote about Chip. He asked us to read them to you. We all share
many memories about our grandmother but these are a few that not many of you may be aware of. We will
now read what my grandfather wrote.
"First, Chip was open to bribery. I learned this when we first met. We met on a blind date during spring
break of my sophomore year at the Naval Academy. I was spending the weekend at a friends home in
Washington D.C. and my friend arranged for Chip to be my date at a party. I learned later that Chip came to
this party very reluctantly. She was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gama Sorority at George Washington
University and Midshipmen had a poor reputation there for dating Kappa's for two or three years while they
were attending the Naval Academy and then, at graduation, going off and marrying the girl back home. I was
very impressed with Chip, then known as Sara to all her friends. In fact, this was when I first started calling
her Chip because her bright effervescent spirit reminded me of the Chipmunks I played with as a child in the
Northern Wisconsin Woods. I invited her to come down to the Academy for a dance the next weekend and
she said didn't want to come there for the above reason. As luck would have it we shared many common
interests, one of which was Louie Armstrong's music. Two weeks later it was announced at the Academy
that Louie Armstrong and his band would be giving a concert there. I immediately invited Chip to come,
which she willingly did and the rest is history.
"Second, Chip loved poetry. She used it to express her thoughts on many occasions. After several years of
marriage she got bored with writing the standard Christmas letter and started writing them in prose. There
is a collection of them in the parish hall which you can read at the reception. She was also a published poet.
In the 1980's she and several friends at Emmanuel submitted poems to the Piedmont Literary Society for
possible publication. Two of Chip's poems were published in the Society's quarterly book. A few years ago
my son and his wife decided to home school their daughter Cassie for the year. Responsibility for teaching
her subjects was divided up between her parents and her Aunt Jean. The English Language subject that
year was poetry, so Chip was asked if she could help Cassie with that. This was done long distance
because they lived in Ft. Collins Colorado. Chip readily agreed to do this and she and Cassie worked out a
plan for them to talk on the telephone every Monday morning for about an hour to share their poetry and do
the lessons. They did this for about six months and Cassie passed with flying colors. Chip's diploma to her
was written in prose.
"Third, Chip was one of the few women today who still hung up our washed clothes on a clothes line out
side. She said she used this time to pray because raising the clothes up on the line was very much like
praying. In fact she wrote a poem about that. She did have her limits though. My mother has told us stories
about how she used to hang up my diapers in the middle of winter in the Northern Wisconsin woods and
later come out and stack them like cord wood to bring them inside. Chip's limit for hanging clothes outside
was 45 degrees. If the temperature was below that, the cloths went into the dryer inside.
"Fourth, Chip was extremely imaginative and would start new projects at the drop of a hat. However, what got
started didn't always get finished. When Becky was still a lump in her mother's tummy, Chip started an
afghan baby blanket for her. Last summer Chip was still working on that blanket and it will probably be up to
Becky to finish it. Chip loved to sew clothing. Her projects ranged from wonderful ball gowns for the many
dances we attended while living in Turkey to Halloween Costumes for the grandchildren. Getting them
finished before the required event often involved sewing the hems in the car enroute to the event.
Unfinished Chip Projects are a common item around our home. However, she always finished anything she
considered really important...particularly projects involving people. People were her most important projects.
"Chip loved the outdoors. This was one of the places that God lived and we both loved to be there. We spent
several weeks of our honeymoon camping in the mountains of the Jackson Hole area in Wyoming. Chip
had never camped outside before so this was a stretch. The morning we looked outside our pup tent and
saw a huge cow elk and her calf drinking from a stream convinced her that this was indeed God's country
and camping was good. Since then tent camping with our family has always been a favorite activity. The
outdoors included fishing. This was one area that we didn't always agree. Chip's favorite fishing experience
was to catch Croaker from our boat using a double bottom rig and the ultimate goal was to catch two at once.
I on the other hand, preferred to go after larger fish such as Stripers along the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel.
Needless to say we spent most of our fishing time catching Croakers. Two years ago we decided to try our
hand at Kayaking and signed up for a Kayaking Elderhostel at St. Simon's Island Georgia. It was a
wonderful experience this led us to buy our own Kayak. Last summer we participated in another Kayaking
Elderhostel in the Black Canyon of Arizona just south of the Hoover Dam.
"Chip's vision of the church was that it should be all inclusive. She believed that everyone should have an
equal opportunity, not only to worship but also to serve the church. In the early 1980s Chip was Senior
Warden at Emmanuel and when our Rector decided to go on sabbatical he left it up to Chip to choose a
supply priest. Chip, always a stickler for process, set up a search committee and as luck would have it, their
first choice was a female Episcopal Priest named Pat Park. Our Bishop at the time was not convinced that
ordaining female priests was what the church should do and had not yet licensed any in our diocese. Chip
met with the Bishop and convinced him that Emmanuel should be allowed to do this and so Pat Park was
the first. She was followed by Mother Marge Kinney and many others. Pat was such a success that the
Bishop let people know that inviting her to our diocese had been his idea.
"Last. I could continue on for a long time but all good things must come to an end. The last thing I want to
share with you about Chip was that Blue was her favorite color. This was due in part to the fact that her eyes
were the color of the blue sky on a summer day. She wore blue dresses, blue jeans, blue jewelry and most
anything blue. She thought her eyes were one of her best features. Shortly after she died I received a call
from the hospital asking about the possibility of organ donation. Chip's driver's license showed that she
was a registered organ donor. Because of the cancer to her brain and lungs about the only organ left that
the hospital could use were her beautiful blue eyes. We gave the hospital permission to use them and we
were informed that two other people, without sight could now have their sight restored. This was Chip's final
gift to our mortal world. She will live on forever in my memory and the memories of her loving family and
many friends.
"Thank you all for coming to our celebration of Chip's life."
