Beloved peace activist and psychotherapist, Judith Ann Mohling (nee Holland) died 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 factor y, 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 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 ever y encouragement to uplift others, to live their best lives; and ever y 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