Obituary of Melvin Roland Wrangham

Mel Wrangham, 95, of Louisville, Colorado, died on Saturday, December 16, 2017. Mel was a much beloved and devoted father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend to many.  

After serving in the Navy during WWII, he worked for various employers until 1963, when he was hired as a draftsman/photographer for Microtel Corporation in Baltimore. Mel retired in 1983.

He will be remembered as a humble and kind human-being. Memorable traits were his thoughtfulness, charm, pride in being a WWII Vet, a happy hour lover and gin martini enthusiast, love of cars and motorcycles, and his retirement hobby as a luthier. Most of all, Mel is representative of a life well and fully lived.

Mel passed away with his son, Scott Wrangham and daughter-in-law Theresa Wrangham, by his side while messages of love were read to him. Mel is survived by his first wife, Dorothy Wrangham (née Vitek); his daughter, Donna Johns (née Wrangham), and her husband Eddie Johns, and their son Ed Johns and his children; daughter Jeanie Prochaska (née Wrangham) and her husband Gary Prochaska, and her son Jason Thomas and his wife Nadya, and their son; and his son, Scott Wrangham and his wife Theresa, and their children, Rachel and Deanna.

Mel is also survived by his step-children, Patty Bolles (née Sullivan) and her husband Peter Bolles and their children, Brendan, Andrew, and Heidi and her husband Jon Blau and their children; and Maura Dudley (née Sullivan) and her children Tanner and Kyle, and his wife Michelle; and Martina Sullivan, and her daughter Katelyn and her husband Jeff Engelbrecht, and their daughter.

Mel is preceded in death by his second wife and high school sweetheart, Ruth Wrangham (née Krusell), and her children Danny, Skip, Eileen and Rob Sullivan.

A celebration of life will be held in Colorado in January and again in July in Massachusetts, where Mel will be buried next to his wife Ruth.