Linell Marie Grundman

Linell Marie Grundman died on Friday, January 13th at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. She was 71. Linell lived an extraordinary story about advancing the high purposes of everything to which she committed her great talent. The found families she formed in each chapter of this story are living testaments to her good works.

Linell was born on January 6, 1952 in Leavenworth, Kansas, to William and Marilyn Wenzel. The second of three children, she grew up in nearby Lansing where she graduated from high school in 1970 and then attended St. Mary College. Over the next decade, Linell worked as a theatre director with the U.S. Army in West Germany and as an actor and singer there and in Texas, Florida, and New York. At 33, she enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a public health specialist in the 1st Armored Division at Ansbach, West Germany, where she met Lieutenant Steven Grundman, whom she married at the end of 1987 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Living in Washington, DC, throughout the 1990s, Linell focused on raising her children but made time to perform and direct in community theatre. From 2000 to 2018, Linell lived in Sandwich, Massachusetts, where she continued directing theatrical productions, especially for children, served two terms on the town's board of selectmen, and was a community-service activist addressing environmental protection, homelessness, human rights, gun safety, the arts, and good government. Since returning to Washington in 2018, Linell's focus had been on stewardship of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, where she served on its finance committee, vestry, and as its senior warden.

Linell, who died from interstitial lung disease, is survived by her husband, Steven Grundman; two children, Michael, of the District of Columbia, and Mary, of New York; and her brother, Scott Wenzel, of Florida. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Denise Dietrich, and a son, Nathan, who died in 1972.

In Sandwich, Massachusetts, a celebration of Linell's life will be held on Saturday, February 25th, from 10:00am, at the Town Hall, 130 Main St. A funeral was held on Saturday, January 28th, at 11:00am in Leavenworth, Kansas, at the University of St. Mary, of which Linell was a trustee. In Washington, a memorial service was held on Saturday, February 11th, from 11:00am, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill (watch it at bit.ly/3JMIOf8).

In lieu of flowers, Linell's family asks for donations to The Linell Grundman Scholarship Fund at the University of St. Mary, 4100 S 4th, Leavenworth KS 66048.