Stephania B. Dec Moulden

Homemaker, Orioles PR volunteer

Longtime Baltimore County resident Stephania B. Moulden passed away on October 15 at the age of 94 at Stella Maris from complications of a stoke she suffered on August 26.

For the past 15 years, Mrs. Moulden had been residing at Warren Place Apartments in Cockeysville. Earlier, she had lived for 38 years with her family in Timonium.

Mrs. Moulden came to Baltimore from her hometown of Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania, in the 1940s and worked at the former Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River as an inspector. It was there that she met her husband of 49 years, William A. Moulden. Mr. Moulden died in 1996 at the age of 80.

In addition to her role as homemaker, Mrs. Moulden worked briefly in real estate before becoming a crossing guard at the former Lutherville Elementary School. She later worked in the cafeteria at Padonia Elementary. During the 1970s and ‘80s, she worked in the patient transportation area at St. Joseph Hospital in Towson.

Her fondest memories, however, involved the Baltimore Orioles and the volunteer role she played along with her husband in the Orioles public relations department. The Mouldens worked under then-PR Director Robert W. Brown for more than a decade, maintaining large day-by-day newspaper clipping scrapbooks for the team and, later, setting up and overseeing the ballclub's archives room at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

“I’d known Steph and Bill Moulden for years but had a chance to know them better when they took on a series of projects, at my request, to help organize a Baltimore Orioles’ archive. That they did an efficient, competent job was no surprise to me as their commitment to anything they set out to do always ensured a ‘Moulden competence' that was special. What I remember most about Steph, and also about Bill, was their passion for the Orioles. And there was one more thing: They both had a great sense of humor and I remember them, fondly, through laughter,” noted Bob Brown, now a Florida resident, who retired in 1992 after 35 years with the Orioles.

The then-retired Mouldens were interviewed on more than one occasion by local media to talk about their unusual volunteer stint for the Orioles. "WMAR-TV reporter Susan White-Bowden featured our parents on an edition of the news segment 'Susan's People' in the mid-‘80s," recalls Fran Minakowski, her daughter. "Mom was seen adding clippings to the latest volume of scrapbooks as she and Dad chatted with Susan.”

Mrs. Moulden had been a member of St. Joseph Parish, Cockeysville, since 1959 when the family relocated to Timonium from the Hamilton section of Baltimore City. Together with her husband and others, she worked on a money-counting team at the parish for a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Moulden volunteered for Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland for a number of years, bringing food to homebound adults in the northern Baltimore County area.

Mrs. Moulden was the daughter of two Polish immigrants, Matty and Bertha Dec, who came to the United States in the early 1900s. She attended Mt. Carmel High School.

Mrs. Moulden is survived by her daughter, Frances M. Minakowski of Towson, MD, and her husband, Anthony E. "Skip" Minakowski; and by her sons, William Moulden of Stevensville, MD, and his wife, Jillane, and Robert M. Moulden of Cockeysville and his wife, Melanie. She is grandmother of four -- Adam Minakowski of Jessup, MD, and his wife, Laura; and Jocelyn, William, and Thomas Moulden, all of Stevensville. She is also survived by eight nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends in the Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley Inc., 10 W. Padonia Road (at York Road) Timonium, MD 21093 on Friday, October 17 from 2-4 pm and 7-9pm. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Joseph Church, 100 Church Lane, Cockeysville, MD 21030 on Saturday, October 18 at 10am. Interment will be at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be directed in Mrs. Moulden's memory to Stella Maris, 2300 Dulaney Valley Road, Timonium, MD 21093.