Jeanne Uhl

Jeanne (Mehrling) Uhl passed away peacefully on June 13, 2020 after a short illness.   She was 94 and a half years old.

J eanne was born on November 6, 1925 to Walter Daniel Mehrling and Doris (Gonder) Mehrling in Pottstown, Pa where Walter was a minister in the Evangelical and Reformed Church (later United Church of Christ). Jeanne was joined by a brother, Ben 4 years later. She especially loved summer vacations spent with her grandparents, Benjamin and the animals on the Gonders’ Spring Hill Farm near Boswell, Pa.

The family did well with moves to Pennsylvania congregations in Bethlehem (1928) and in Newport, where Jeanne graduated from high school. There is a family legend about “the time Jeanne walked all the way across the (nearby) Juniata River”. Walter enlisted as a chaplain, serving with the 8th Army Air Force in England and France and leaving Jeanne, Benjamin and Doris to live near the parsonage in Newport. After high school, Jeanne worked, trained and received her pilot’s license, and enrolled at nearby Millersville State Teacher’s College. When Walter returned and was reassigned to a parish in Frostburg, Md, Jeanne enrolled at Frostburg State Teacher’s College.

While at Frostburg, Jeanne noticed Ronald Uhl, who had returned from an abbreviated drafted Army service. They sang together in the Maryland Singers and she invited him to join her in summer jobs at the Hotel Champlain (New York) resort. Jeanne and Ronald were married, student taught, graduated and taught (Jeanne as a second/third grade teacher.) Ronald received his masters degree in education from Western Maryland college, where George was born (1951) into a “Vetville” world war surplus housing unit, as was Mark 16 months later (1953).

When Ronald received a job teaching at Hereford high school, Jeanne continued full time homemaking and established the family in a brand-new home (their only one…) on Greentop Road in Cockeysville, Md near several of the other Hereford High teachers.  David (1956; Jeanne’s final try for a girl) completed the family. We happily dug through roof-high snow drifts in the winters and took over war surplus housing (CCC then POW camp) in the summers at Camp Michaux in Pennsylvania, where Ronald did the photography and Jeanne manned the small store that sold photo supplies, post cards and some of the lanyards that Jeanne braided.

When Ronald identified the Indiana University AV program as the place to get his doctorate, Jeanne and Ronald moved the family to (you guessed it: surplus army barracks aka married student housing) in Bloomington for an extended year. Ronald completed his course requirements and George and Mark were bussed across town to truly bad public schools. The small size of the IU housing led to many charcoal grilled dinners at a “stinky poo park” and many trips to different grocers to take advantage of their specials.

After finishing his doctorate, Ronald (“don’t call him “Skip” or “Ronnie” any more”: Jeanne’s successful edict) was hired to manage the audio visual and then audio visual + library services for Prince George’s Co, Md schools. Jeanne moved the family to Laurel Md. Here, George, Mark and David went to public schools, Jeanne became a successful Welcome Wagon hostess and the family enjoyed the setting overlooking the Patuxent river.  From both Cockeysville and Laurel, the family also enjoyed visiting Richard and Hazel Uhl at their Bird River home, and (less often) Doris and Walter Mehrling as they moved from parsonages in Adamstown Md to Marklesburg Pa. Famously, Jeanne piloted a boat under the Gunpowder River railroad bridge into territory that was restricted for the Aberdeen proving ground, causing a confrontation with a PT boat with a manned 50 caliber machine gun on its deck…(she may never have piloted a boat again…though she was happy to go along when George piloted on the Chesapeake or Gulf of Mexico..). Jeanne organized a remarkable sabbatical trip to Guam, with stops on Saipan, several Hawaiian islands, Disneyland and San Francisco/Muir Woods. She would later travel to Alaska, Egypt, Russia, Europe, across Canada, to many Caribbean destinations and around Italy, adding to prior extended North American road trips that headed to Florida, several Worlds’ Fairs and to the Southwest.

Ronald and Jeanne established a growing real estate investment portfolio, first in Baltimore County, then in Laurel and then near their next home in Tracy’s Landing, Md. Managing these properties occupied more and more of Jeanne’s time as they moved from investing in townhouses to single family houses, multifamily houses and a mixed-use property. This became infectious: George, Mark and David have all had real estate investments, both Mark and David have worked in this area as property managers, and David has been an appraiser and realtor.

Jeanne did love the water. She selected the Tracy’s landing home with spectacular views of Rockhold Creek and Herring bay and her next home on Thomas Point in Annapolis with a dock on a sheltered cove that let out onto South River. Jeanne and Ronald went to Marco Island for a brief stay in a rental unit, fell in love with the “sugar sand” beach and purchased the “Mariner” condo in which Jeanne stayed increasingly. At Thomas point and Marco, she welcomed holiday family guests and increasing numbers of grandchildren: Christopher, Jonathan, David, Jessica and Joy. At Marco, Jeanne became famous for organizing the “lunch bunch” that dined together after church services, and at other times. She often drove several lunch bunch members in her large Cadillac that also gained local fame. She wanted to move from Thomas point to an Annapolis Marconi Drive condo after Ronald’s death in 1999 (with part time in Marco) and then to full time in Marco. Then she wanted to move to an assisted living facility. A fall and multiple fractures led her children to move her to Albuquerque, where she again gained many fans at her assisted living dining group and had greatly-anticipated visits from her children, granddaughter, daughters in law and nieces.

Jeanne loved the sun, tanned beautifully, and was often mistaken for 20 years younger than her chronological age through much of her life. Her reading to her young children, especially George, set the stage for their lifelong learning. She loved to organize her homes, her family and their activities, her social groups and travel. She was a careful caretaker to Ronald as his cardiac, diabetes and Parkinson’s diseases required increasing attention. She seemed to need to move periodically as an adult after being forced to move periodically as a “preacher’s kid” and enjoyed establishing ever-more-interesting homes for herself and for her Uhl in- laws.  The family real estate “empire” was a true partnership with Ronald, a focus for family discussion, and later a source of collaboration with Mark and David who took over as managers in her later years.

Jeanne will be missed by her sons, Dr. George Richard Uhl of Albuquerque NM, Mark Daniel Uhl of the Villages Fla, and David Ronald Uhl of western Virginia, her grandchildren Christopher Uhl of Baltimore, Jonathan Uhl of Montgomery Co Md, David Richard Uhl of Freiburg, Germany, Jessica Uhl of Montgomery Co Maryland and Joy Hazel Uhl of Albuquerque NM, her “daughters in law” Olga Kovbasnjuk, Jane Uhl, Pam Napier-Uhl, her sister in law Mary Lou Mehrling and her numerous nieces, nephews and friends.