Kalas Funeral Home & Crematory

Mary Joanne Gludt, 70, a resident of Annapolis for more than four years and formerly of Washington, D.C., and Columbia, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease July 19 at the Spa Creek Center Genesis ElderCare Network after a brief illness. 


Born March 21, 1937, in Red Wing, Minn., and reared in Lake City, Minn., Miss Gludt was the oldest child born to the late Howard and Rectina Gludt. She graduated from Lake City High School in 1955, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and earned the William Patton Award. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., in 1959, where she received a W.T. Grant-endowed scholarship and minored in foreign languages, business and history. She was admitted to Pi Gamma Mu, a national honor society. She later earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1972 from the University of Minnesota Law School, and was admitted to the bar in Minnesota, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. She was also the first female attorney in Wabasha County, Minn. 


Miss Gludt began her career working for the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., in July 1959, and later joined the State Department in 1964, serving both on the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Austria and in Washington. Subsequently, she rejoined Mr. McCarthy's staff, where she remained until the late 1960s. 


Later in her career, she worked for the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare, first in the Inspector General's Office and later with the Social Security Administration. In 1987, she graduated from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Executive Seminar Center in Kings Point, N.Y. At the time of her retirement, she was chief of the disabilities litigation branch. 


Her interests included golf, skiing, hiking, running and sailing. She enjoyed studying the Civil War and traveling to battlefield reenactments. 


She is survived by a longtime friend, David Bleil of Gambrills. She was the sister of the late John Gludt. 


Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 7 at the Lakewood Cemetery in Lake City, Minn.

Mary Gludt

Mary Gludt

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