Dr. Judith Marie Amsden

Dr. Judith M. Amsden E. ed passed peacefully on May 18, 2025. Daughter of Sander and Patricia (Ankenbrandt) Otterson. Judy attended elementary school in 3 states and Central High School in Minneapolis. She met Charles while waitressing at The Fireburger Café where she told Kenny the cook, “That’s the man I’m going to marry.” Two years later after working as a model and a clerk at Honeywell, Judith and Charles were married. In 1965, after having 4 children, a recruiter from Goodyear in Arizona hired Chuck and sponsored the family’s move from Minneapolis to Phoenix. Judy referred to this move as not unlike those traveling west in The Grapes of Wrath. Chuck drove ahead in his long bed ford pickup truck with treasures not trusted to the moving company, including a stainless-steel square tub ringer washer and the good China. Judy followed in a vista cruiser with 4 children, a dog who got truck sick and a parakeet in a cage. Regardless of this, they were welcomed at the best motels along the way. The family settled in Phoenix with Chuck and Judy both earning several educational degrees. Judy retired as a school principal to lecture at both Glendale Community College and ASU. She later was a docent at the Litchfield Park Historical Society and served as a member of The Friends of the Library. She was a past secretary and treasurer for the Alexander G. Bell Association for the Deaf as well as president of the Arizona Special Education Administrators Association.

Judy was preceded in death by her sister Sandra. She is survived by her brothers Jerry Otterson and Malcom Liddiard and sisters Elaine Nelson and Cathy Seifert, numerous cousins in Minnesota, her four children, Stephanie Johnson (Erik), Julie Fach (Randy), Chuck Amsden (Mary), and Michael Amsden (Salud). She had 8 grandchildren: Nick, Tim and Matt Anderson, Jennifer Mathews, Cody and Zack Amsden, Daphne Manuel and Mike Amsden, as well as 14 great grandchildren; Hannah, Lilly, Claire, Mason, Charlotte, Finley, Jane, Sammy, Leia, Xena, Lexi, Benjamin, Aaron and Emma.

Donations in memory of Judy can be made to: Hospice of the Valley or The Litchfield Park Historical Society.