Michael Carl Ludders

April 24, 1983 - May 23, 2021

Memorial Service

Mass of Christian Burial
June 26 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church
2348 Collier Pkwy, Land O Lakes, FL 34639

Memorial
June 26 1:30pm - 6:00pm
Plantation Palms Golf Club
23253 Plantation Palms Blvd., Land O Lakes, FL 34639

Obituary

Michael Carl Ludders beloved son, brother, nephew, cousin, uncle and friend died at home in Wesley Chapel, Florida May 24th, 2021. He died of a heart attack. Mike is survived by his parents Stephen and Dawn, his brother, sister and nephew; John, Saskia and Christian, his aunts Patricia, Mary Katherine, Molly, Jeanne and Pat, his uncles Doug, Carl, Jim, Paul, Patrick, and Robert, his cousins Ryan, Margarette, Laura, Beau, Robert, Daniel, Brian, Leslie, Jay, Edward, Katherine and Benjamin. And many, many dear friends.

He is joyfully reunited with his mother Jane; his grandparents Paul and Marian; and Carl and Eileen, his aunts Ellen and Billie and uncle Jim and his cousin Stewart.

Mike was born in Chicago Il, grew up in Buffalo NY, went to college in Gambier OH and worked in New York City, Seattle WA and Tampa FL.

Mike attended High School at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and graduated from Keyon College. He was a Paralegal for Paul, Wise Rifkin in New York. He was a Legal analyst for Microsoft and the Legal Assistant to Corporate Counsel at Noble House in Seattle and Controller for TLC Travel Staff in Tampa.

Mike was involved in Rowing, Model UN, Mock trial, Band, many charitable fundraising drives and wrote for the Buffalo News while in High School. He played Ultimate Frisby, was an editor of the Keyon Collegian newspaper, was involved in the Debate club and the Model UN team that won the small college national title held annually at Harvard in his junior year. He was active in his church as a Eucharistic Minister at St, Joe’s in high school. And as a member of the Newman Club and Eucharistic Minister at St. Vincent DePaul Catholic church at Kenyon College.

Mike had a way of making people feel unique and important and was loved by many of the people he touched. He will be dearly missed.

Services will be held on June 26th in Tampa. There will be a Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Land ‘O lakes FL at 12:30pm; a Memorial Celebration at Plantation Palms Country Club at 1:30 and a reception at Plantation Palms at 3:30pm.

Remembrances

I am so saddened to hear this awful news. I worked with Mike on KCMUN and was teammates with him on the Debate Club, and I still remember the amazing energy, ambition, wit, and knowledge that he brought to everything that he did. I remember him working overtime as the head of KCMUN to secure the funds for our next conference, and sitting with him and the rest of the Model UN crew late into the night talking about anything and everything politics and history related. Although we only knew each other that one short academic year of ‘02 - ‘03, my time with Mike is part of some of my favorite and most cherished memories of Kenyon. I'm sorry to have lost touch with Mike for the last few years, and I'm devastated to learn about his passing. My thoughts go out to Mike’s family in this sad time and please know that Mike’s generosity and spirit has touched and positively impacted so, so many people and made the world a better, more positive way!

We became friends our senior year in high school. Theatrics and silliness abound wherever he went...
Highlights include but are not limited to: a random show I got swept into at St. Joe’s, piling groups of people into minivans to go on random adventures, firecrackers strapped to toys on his parents’ driveway, amateur poetry readings, running from the village to the Penn Station to catch the LIRR on New Years, polar bear plunges into the ocean, that one Buffalo Sabres and Rangers game, watching the NYC marathon, Kinsale (an Irish pub on the Upper East Side that he turned into a Sabres bar), experimenting with the physics of the subway, Halloween shenanigans... (he made a very convincing priest and Bill Clinton), and adventures in Seattle... like that one time in Wallace Falls, he wanted to jump to a rock in the middle of the river that was mere feet away from a descent sized waterfall and I felt certain he wasn't going to make it back safely... but he did it! (Superhero skills! 10,000 points.) He told fantastic, epic stories and gave points to things that amused him.
When I moved to the NYC, he showed me the places where so many great writers and thinkers used to hang out. He also introduced me to some of my favorite people.
Always there for me... especially when I needed a laugh, put things in perspective, have an obscure, nonsensical conversation... or hatch a practically perfect scheme to get mutual friends (Pam and Till) to fall in love...
He sent my children an X-Files picture book that they instantly fell in love with... he requested that I write on the cover: “To Red Moon and Silver Wing, Keep looking at the stars. Especially the ones that move.- Mike” (He even framed and hung my kids’ artwork up in his home.)
I’m going to miss my dear friend... Especially when I want to share any silly references to Catholicism, Ireland, theatre, Shakespeare or any sort of ridiculous pun.
“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal; Love leaves a memory no one can steal”
Mike Ludders was one of a kind, and I’m a better person for knowing him.
I have since looked at some old correspondence and found one email from 2006 in which Mike was moving and wished to throw a party like an Irish wake, he wrote:
“As at an Irish wake, there shall be silly music, laughter, unprintible things said, and strong whiskey to be drunk.
Also, the game of Kings. Which you don't see at many Irish wakes, but whatever.
Also, a hoola hoop. Just because...
Please wear a silly-ass hat.
And bring some munchies or some drinkies if you've got 'em”
In reviewing his email updates throughout the years, he wrote with pride and admiration about his brother, John. Even though I never asked for affirmations, he would write of how proud he was of me too, which reading now feels like a big, giant hug from Mike's lingering energy...
Mike's Kinsale (the Irish pub that Mike turned into Sabres bar in Manhattan) crew remembers how Mike loved picking people up, physically and emotionally. <3 ... and racing friends around the block. He also introduced my cousin Suzanne to her now husband, Brian. He was a matchmaker!
I'm holding Mike's memory close to my heart and his memory does bring so much comfort (and laughs). Sending lots of love and hugs to you all.