F. Michael Ludwig

F. Michael “Mike” Ludwig of Denver, Colorado, died at home after a brief battle with leukemia. He was born in Denver, the son of Frank and Madge Ludwig and grandson of William and Maisie Ludwig.

Mike attended Steck Elementary School and Christ the King before graduating from Regis High School in 1957. He went to college at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and philosophy.  It is safe to say that the highlight of Mike’s college years was participating in a junior year abroad program at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.  A big part of these programs is the ability to travel and see the sites of Europe. It was in Fribourg where Mike would meet Ann Cunningham, from St. Louis, who was attending Maryville College and was part of the same junior year abroad program.  Ann became the love of Mike’s life and the two would eventually marry.

After both graduated from college, Mike and Ann married on September 2, 1961. Mike also enrolled in law school at Denver University that same fall.  While in law school Mike and Ann had three children, Peter, Kathy and Karen. These law school years were fertile in other ways. Mike and Ann established enduring, lifelong friendships with other families. These relationships have continued into the second and third generations.

Mike was somewhat “old school” in the sense that he had one career with one firm for his entire professional life. He started as an associate and then became a partner with the law firm, Wood, Ris and Hames, P.C.  In 1972, in the midst of all this socializing and career building, Mike and Ann were blessed to welcome their fourth child, John.

Mike practiced as a civil litigator. His wit, charm, powerful memory, and people skills, when combined with his legal acumen and speaking ability, made him a formidable trial lawyer. He served as President of the Colorado Defense Lawyers Association and President of the Denver Law Club. He once represented the governor of Colorado, John Love. He was a mentor and inspiration to many young attorneys throughout his career, which concluded in 2009 with his retirement.

Mike was an avid reader throughout his life, sometimes reading two or three books a week. He loved reading about the Civil War and was very much a history buff. The digital age blessed Mike with a Kindle on which he could read books and from which he could make daily orders from Amazon—usually of the gadget variety. The quest for convenience and efficiency never ends when it comes to tying fishing knots, opening bottles of red wine, or lighting candles at the dinner table.

Mike was an avid sports fan and outdoorsman starting at a young age. When the magazine Sports Illustrated first came out in 1954, Mike was an original subscriber.  He maintained that subscription throughout his life. There was not a sport on television that he would not watch.

Mike was an angler at a very early age. His family would take annual trips to a ranch on the Little Snake River near the Wyoming border in northwest Colorado. It was here that Mike learned to fish with a spinning rod and eventually with a fly rod. In the last decade of his life, Mike was able to take a great many fly-fishing trips. Happily, these trips included revisiting the Little Snake River where he caught a few more (sometimes quite large) trout.

In addition to red wine, the story of Mike is not complete without mentioning his passion for tennis.  He loved watching the sport on television—adored Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Villas, and Roger Federer. He and Ann took trips to watch professional tennis in person—specifically to New York to watch the U.S. Open and to Palm Springs to watch the Indian Wells tournament. The family took annual trips to the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.  When visiting daughter Karen’s family in Maine, Mike would have to be at the court 45 minutes early to make sure he had a place in that morning’s tennis session.

Mike loved to compete in general, but he especially loved to compete in tennis—singles, doubles, mixed doubles—the works. In the 1970s, the Ludwig family were members at Crestmoor Community Club in Denver where Mike played interclub, competed on the tennis ladder, and participated in club and statewide

tournaments. He won the club father/child tournament with each one of his children.  While skillful, hustle and determined perseverance were always Mike’s strong suits.

In 1974 Mike and Ann moved from the Park Hill area of Denver to the mean streets of Cherry Hills Village. When house hunting, a key criterion was a yard big enough to have a tennis court. Soon after the move, construction of the tennis court began and was completed--eliminating pesky obstacles like making reservations and driving to the courts.

Weather permitting, Mike played tennis almost every day. Sometimes this meant waiting for a late rising teenage son to finally wake up. One summer when Peter was out of town, Mike played frequently with a neighborhood friend of Peter’s, Cam Philpott. The Philpott family quickly dubbed Cam the “surrogate son”. For over twenty years family friend Larry Simpson has stepped in as Mike’s regular tennis hitting partner, estimated at more than 3000 sessions on the court. Mike also played indoor tennis every winter for almost his entire adult life including the last 34 years with his sons Peter and John.

Throughout these varied interests and activities, Mike has been blessed with many lifelong friendships.

Mike is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ann (Cunningham) Ludwig; his four children, Peter (Debra), Kathryn (Hilary), Karen Lafferty (Tom), and John; his three grandchildren, Gregory Ludwig, Allison and Christopher Lafferty; his nephew, Mark Kulish, and his niece, Claudia Kulish. Mike was preceded in death by his half-brother, James Kulish and his wife Timmie Kulish, and their son, Chris Kulish.

A funeral mass will be held at 10:30 am on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, at St. Louis Catholic Church – 3310 S. Sherman St. Englewood, CO. Reception to follow at the Village Club (4601 E Bellview Ave). In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Mike’s name to Kantorei Choir www. kantorei.org .

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