PAULA MEREDITH MOSLE
1930-2020
Paula Meredith Mosle died on August 28, 2020, surrounded by her family and loving caretakers. She will be remembered as a loyal friend with a sly wit and ready smile, and as a devoted wife, mother, sister, and grandmother. Throughout her life, she was a dedicated and effective volunteer, contributing to innumerable institutions through her compassionate vision, fierce intellect, and exceptional talents as a writer and speaker.
Paula was born on May 18, 1930, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Hope Sutton and Byron Meredith. (Her grandparents were from Claremore, the setting of Rogers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma,” a musical she loved.) After an itinerant childhood in the oilfields of Oklahoma and Texas, she finished high school in Houston, where she was a valedictorian at Lamar High School, and then attended Rice University, where she received a BA in 1952 and an MA in 1959, focusing on the plays of Shakespeare, whose soliloquies she could recite from memory until life’s end. She taught at St. John’s School in Houston before returning to Rice, where she served as Advisor to Women—effectively, the first Dean of Women—from 1955 to 1959, overseeing the creation of Jones College, Rice’s first residential dormitory for women. She married Jon L. Mosle, Jr. in 1957, and in 1959 they moved to Dallas, where he opened the Dallas office of Rotan Mosle, Inc.
Throughout her life, she volunteered her time and talents in leadership roles with numerous charitable organizations, with a particular focus on educational institutions. She served two terms on the Board of Governors of Rice University and received Rice’s Alumni Meritorious Service Award. She also served as Chairman of the Board of the Hockaday School and was elected a Life Trustee. She served as President of the Junior League of Dallas, of the Dallas Shakespeare Club and of Educational Opportunities, Inc. She was a member and past vestry person of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. She was a Board member of St. Philip’s School in Dallas, the St. Michael School, the Dallas Arboretum, Friends of the Dallas Public Library, Hope Cottage, Child Care Dallas, and the Dallas County Heritage Society. She was a member of the Dallas Woman’s Club, Charter 100, and the Founders’ Garden Club, and she was an avid gardener, brightening her neighborhood with a cornucopia of flowers in every season. For decades, she loved spending time with her beloved friends at Elder Friendly and also enjoyed traveling with her sister and a wide circle of friends, especially in the mountains of Colorado.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Jon L. Mosle, Jr., by her daughter, Meredith Mosle, and by two sisters-in-law,
Eleanor Mosle Hill and Margaret Mosle Waltmon. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Jon and Jennifer Mosle; her daughter, Sara Eleanor Mosle; and three grandchildren, Katherine Eleanor Mosle, Michael Torbett Mosle, and Johanna Meredith Keyser. She is also survived by her sister, Sara Meredith Peterson of Houston; her brother-inlaw, DeWitt Waltmon of Houston; three nieces, Lisa Waltmon Smalling, Kelly Waltmon Hatley, and Hope Sutton Peterson; and two nephews, DeWitt Waltmon, Jr. and Scott Mosle Waltmon. She was also a devoted pet owner throughout her life and was preceded in death by her beloved dogs Baron, Minchen, Kinchen and Gracie, and is survived by her cat, Okie.
Owing to COVID-19, the family will hold a private memorial service, where she hoped everyone would sing her favorite hymns “with verve,” including “O God Our Help in Ages Past,” “O Lord Most Merciful,” “The Lord
Bless You and Keep You” (by Paul Thomas) and “Amazing Grace.”
Paula’s family would like to extend special thanks to her lifelong friend and gardening collaborator, Roberto Gonzalez, and to her devoted caretakers: Lynne Doughty, Wanda Waters, Tihtna (Tina) Lodamo, Tizita Kemere, and Nitsuh Telore. We will be forever grateful for their loving care and attention, especially during the challenges and life-threatening period of the pandemic.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Paula and Jon Mosle Faculty Research Fund in the Humanities at Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, MS 81, Houston, TX 77251; the Meredith Mosle Chair in Liver Disease at UT Southwestern, in care of Southwestern Medical Foundation, 3889 Maple Avenue, Suite 100, Dallas, TX 75219; the Paula and Jon Mosle Scholarship Fund at the Hockaday School, 11600 Welch Road, Dallas, TX 75229; or a charity of choice.