Miranda Scholten Cline

Miranda Scholten Cline (maiden name: Miranda John Scholten), aged 74, passed away, peacefully, from Alzheimer’s Disease, at Belmont Village at West University, in Houston, Texas, during the early morning hours of September 12, 2026. She was surrounded by her immediate family: Mike Cline, husband of nearly 47 years, and our two sons, John Cline, of Dallas, Texas, and David Cline, of Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to her immediate family, she is also survived by her older sister Rebecca “Becky” Sadlier, and husband Ed Sadlier, both of Park Ridge, Illinois, her nephews, Jack Sadlier, of Washington, DC, Rudd Sadlier, and niece, Rose Sadlier, both from Chicago, Illinois, in addition to a myriad of grand-nephews, and grand-nieces, other relatives, and a long list of close friends. Miranda was a loving mom, my best friend, and partner, and her loss will be felt forever by those who knew, or have known her.

Miranda was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 25th, 1952, to John Gerald Scholten, and Joanne “Jo Jo” Gordon Willis. She was the second of two girls, of which her father was extremely happy having had two girls. Having been in the 1st Marines during World War II, and participating in the invasion of Okinawa (and potentially, in the invasion of Japan, had the war gone on any longer), he knew that even in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s there would be other wars. He also knew he never wanted any child of his to go into battle, and witness the horrors that he had.

After graduating high school, in Chicago, Miranda attended the University of Illinois, at Chicago. Initially, she majored in Art, but later discovered her love of Geology, and science, in general, and changed her major, and subsequently graduated with a BS degree in Geology. By the time she had also taken a required class in Calculus, she discovered her love of math, as well, accumulating enough hours to also have a minor in Math. She was my “math whiz” throughout our marriage!

Having difficulties finding a job in geology, in, and around the Chicago area, in 1977 she applied for, and was hired over the phone, as a Geophysicist, by Western Geophysical, and subsequently moved to Houston, Texas. It was the beginning of the oil boom and Western had a whole department was full of new college geology graduates.

It was there, at Western, where Miranda, and Mike, also a Geophysicist, first met, during her first-day introduction to everyone in the department where she would be working. Before too long, Miranda, and Mike, found that they had many things in common: we both started as Art majors, in college, before switching to Geology, and ultimately developing a driving interest in Geophysics, and science, in general; and we both loved camping, nature, and the outdoors.

We subsequently started dating, and had only been together for about six months, when Miranda asked me if I wanted to get married. I was a little hesitant, at that point—not because I didn’t love her, and wanted to be with her forever—but, because I wanted to make 100% sure that it would “stick” (however, I felt like I was already 99.9% sure, at that time). My primary desire was to find “the one, and only” to be with for the rest of our lives. I said yes, but asked her to hold off for another six months, just to make completely sure. Because of legal complications, were actually married twice: the first time in a legal, civil ceremony in Houston on October 19th, 1979, then the second time at a church ceremony in Chicago, Illinois, on October 27th, 1979 (the complicated process was due to the 30-day license-to-marriage, waiting-period, that was a Chicago requirement, at the time). She had the 10/27/79 date inscribed on the inside of my wedding ring, so that I would always remember which date she wanted to celebrate—which was very helpful to me over the years!

She eventually left Western Geophysical, and was ultimately hired as an Exploration Geophysicist with Amerada Hess, helping to locate suitable oil, and natural gas drilling sites in the offshore Gulf of Mexico. She spent five successful years at Amerada before a difficult pregnancy with our first son, John, caused her to leave due to her ill health.

Miranda, and I, were together for almost 48 years (counting the year of dating)—almost two-thirds of our lives, by my calculations—during which we had two wonderful sons who were both very smart (I always say that they inherited their Mom’s intelligence), and both of which graduated with their Master’s degrees (Physician Assistant for John, and an MBA for David). Miranda, and I had a wonderful life together, until her Alzheimer’s Disease robbed us of any chance for more years together. I will always love her dearly!!

At this time, the plans for her memorial service is pending, as we are still in the planning process—that is, whether to have one in Houston, or Chicago, or both. Additionally, in lieu of sending flowers, please consider donating, instead, to the Alzheimer’s Association at: https://www.alz.org/get-involved-now/donate