Virginia L. ‘Dinny’ Stuelpnagel
Longtime volunteer at Sheppard Pratt Hospital and National Aquarium in Baltimore ‘was a friend to everybody’
Virginia L. “Dinny” Stuelpnagel, a longtime volunteer at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital and the National Aquarium in Baltimore who was also an active church member, died Feb. 7 at Gilchrist Hospice Center in Towson from complications of a fall. The former Homeland resident was 89.
Born Mary Virginia Linville, she was the daughter of Donald Linville, a salesman, and Virginia Corkran Linville, a homemaker. A Baltimore native, she was raised on Goodale Place in Homeland and later in Roland Park.
A 1951 graduate of Notre Dame Prep, Mrs. Stuelpnagel began her college studies at Goucher College, where she was a member of the field hockey team.
After her father took a job in Chicago, she moved there as well to enroll at Northwestern University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1955.
When she was working as a librarian at the Johns Hopkins University, she met and fell in love with John Clay Stuelpnagel, who was studying at Hopkins for his doctorate in mathematics. They married in 1959.
After her marriage, she stopped using her first name, family members said.
The couple settled into a home on Tilbury Way in Homeland, where they raised their three children. After their children entered school, Mrs. Stuelpnagel worked part-time as a physical education instructor at the Calvert School in Baltimore.
After leaving Calvert, she volunteered in the medical library at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson. In addition, she was a docent for more than three decades with the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
“She was there forever. I think Dinny was there from day one, and I volunteered with her [at the National Aquarium] for 18 years,” said Linda S. Nedzbala. “She was a terrific shift captain and a very knowledgeable and smart lady.”
The two women and their crew worked every Wednesday.
“We were the third shift, the final shift, and we’d get there at 3:30 and be on the floor by 4. And then we worked until 6 or 7. Naturally, we became a very close group and friends, and we were kept up to date with training. Dinny was also good at working with the diverse personalities that make up a shift,” Mrs. Nedzbala said.
“Dinny was a big reader outside of the aquarium. If someone asked her a question and she didn’t know, she read until she found the answer,” her friend said. “She was certainly interested in animals and wanted to give back to the community, and working at the aquarium worked out well for her. She was just highly thought of by everybody.”
Mrs. Stuelpnagel was a lifelong active communicant of St. David’s Episcopal Church, where she was a lay Eucharistic minister, lector and member of the vestry and day school boards, among other committees.
Stuart Smith, who is the senior warden at St. David’s, was a friend for 17 years and worked closely with Mrs. Stuelpnagel.
“She was a stalwart of the church and not in a showy way,” Mr. Smith said. “She was involved and clearly a leader but in a quiet way. People always wanted to know what Dinny thought about things.”
Mr. Smith added: “She was a friend to everybody and very friendly. She always wanted to know about the person she was speaking with. It was about them and not her.”
Athletic, Mrs. Stuelpnagel played tennis and golf well into her 80s and was a member of both the L’Hirondelle Club of Ruxton and the Country Club of Maryland.
“She was outgoing and friendly but extremely competitive if you were playing a sport with her, and she was quite a good athlete,” said Frankie Sherwood, a close friend of 40 years, who played tennis and golf with Mrs. Stuelpnagel.
She also enjoyed walking and was active until a week before her death, said a daughter, Jenny Hovermill of Roland Park. An avid reader, she enjoyed playing bridge with friends in later years.
She and her husband, who had been a software analyst in Northrop Grumman’s defense travel system in Arlington, Virginia, and died in 2016, liked to travel to Europe, the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands.
They also shared a love for the beach and vacationing at North Carolina’s Outer Banks and Bethany Beach, Delaware.
In recent years, Mrs. Stuelpnagel lived at College Manor, a Lutherville retirement community.
A dog fancier, she raised three golden retrievers over the years, Ms. Hovermill said.
“She was very devoted to her family and loved animals, especially dogs,” Ms. Sherwood said.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. March 3 at St. David’s Episcopal Church at 4700 Roland Ave.
Mrs. Stuelpnagel is survived by a son, Daniel Stuelpnagel of Virginia Beach; two daughters, Jenny Hovermill of Roland Park, and Vicky Murray of Ruxton; four grandchildren; and a nephew.