Nelda (Rudolph) Mickens, passed away on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 in Highland Village, Texas at the age of 91. Nelda had been a resident of Greeley, Colorado for 56 years. She was eternally optimistic, fun-loving, gracious, and was an enthusiastic life-long learner. She will be greatly missed by all her family and friends.
Born in Holgate, Ohio on October 11, 1929 to parents John C. and Mabel E. (Thurston) Rudolph, Nelda was the middle child with an older sister Jean (Collin) and younger brother Merritt.
Nelda was a loving wife and mother. She married violinist Howard M. Mickens on June 26, 1949 in Holgate, Ohio, and together they raised four children. They were married for 58 wonderful years until Howard’s death in 2007.
She attended Bowling Green State University and received a Bachelor of Music Education from Northwestern University in 1951. She earned Master of Arts from Colorado State College (now UNC) in 1967, and Professor Emeritus in Music Education from UNC in 1984. She was a member of Alpha Phi sorority.
Nelda was a gifted musician and a highly respected music educator. She taught choral classes in schools in Wooster, Ohio and Bemidji, Minnesota, and taught general music as well in the Greeley public schools and the UNC Lab school.
She also played violin in symphony orchestras in Wooster, Ohio; Bemidji, Minnesota; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Greeley and Fort Collins, Colorado. She and Howard shared and passed on a deep love and appreciation of music to their children, who all became musicians and music educators. For a time, the whole family performed in the Greeley Philharmonic and church orchestras. They were featured in a Greeley Tribune article as “the family that plays together, stays together.”
Nelda was amazingly organized, with a remarkable memory, and always game to try learning something new. She was adventurous and loved planning and traveling all around the USA and Europe. A few years ago, she even traveled to Hong Kong. Still, she always loved returning to her cherished home and to her special neighbors and friends in the warm Greeley community.
Nelda was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sister, great-granddaughter Haylie Held and son-in-law Michael Held. She is survived by her brother Merritt (Sook), her children Kathy (Ron) Smith, David (Brenda) Mickens, Sherry Held, and Karol (John) Sterrett. Her grandchildren are Mark Smith, Paul (Kate) Smith, Erin (Felix) Choi, Sara (Haitham Mostafa) Mickens, Becky (Andrew) Welch, David Sterrett, Michelle (Chase) Douglass, Steven (Michelle) Held, Eric (Jenny) Held. Her great-grandchildren are Chloe, Georgiana and Katherine Choi, Grant and Colin Smith, Harper Welch, Layla Mostafa, Mikey and Grace Held, and Bennett and Micah Douglass.
She will also be very missed by sister-in-law Rose Vogelsang.
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, October 19th at 2:00 PM at The First Congregational Church, 2101 16th St, Greeley, CO. The service will be livestreamed at https://youtu.be/6iKT0MJfVno
In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests donations be made in Nelda’s memory to St. Jude Children’s Hospital (www.stjude.org)
