Mimi Jean Bruder

Mimi Jean Bruder—beloved mother, grandmother, sister, and friend—died on Sunday, July 27 after a long battle with cancer. She was 79. Born in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, on July 25, 1946, she was the eldest child of Franklin and Virginia Riggle (née Dowling). By 1949, the family had moved to Midland, Michigan, where her father, a proud World War II veteran and fierce union man, began work at Dow Corning. Her earliest memory was walking from the family home to downtown over a plank bridge across the Tittabawassee River when she was three years old. She remembered the walk as “thrilling and a little scary” as she held her mom’s hand tight. That journey launched an adventurous life defined by Mimi’s irrepressible joy, a career devoted to helping children in need, and a series of deep and enduring friendships that carried her from early childhood through her final days. After graduating from Midland High School in 1964, Mimi and her friend Vicki Zwerdling (née Stein) hopped in a black Pontiac and headed west with only a road map and an endless sense of adventure. More journeys followed: to college and sorority days at the University of Michigan; to early jobs in Fairfield, Connecticut, New York City, and Chicago; to graduate school in social work at Wayne State and Western Michigan universities; to marriage and early family life in Kalamazoo, Michigan; eventually to Traverse City where she settled in 1978 with husband John Bruder, built a family with their children Matthew, Anne, and Molly, and then, after her first marriage ended, remade her life with Paul Surratt and his children Jason and Sarah; and finally, late in life after Paul’s death, to Berea, Kentucky, where she made a second home with Don Hunt and their two poodles, Lucy and Freddie. Not long after moving to Traverse City, Mimi struck up friendships with Mary Ann and Tom Moore, and Nancy and Kent Walton. You could find them and many other friends laughing in the kitchen of the Washington Street house Mimi shared with Paul in the 1990s or stopping by Toy Harbor, the downtown toy shop Mimi co-founded with Nancy in 1984. The same joy and curiosity that animated Mimi’s friendships and shaped her decision to open a children’s toy store also propelled her career in social work. At Munson Hospital in the late 1970s, she helped families whose children were struggling after premature births. Later, across more than a decade at non-profits and the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District, she fought for children wrestling with mental health issues to get the educational and counseling resources they needed to succeed. At home—and there were many!—Mimi’s keen sense of color and shape transformed rooms into works of art. She had a painter’s eye, something she shared with her aunt and namesake, and then honed during retirement in drawing and painting classes at Berea College. She never stopped learning, and she painted even while cancer robbed her of strength and time. Mimi Bruder was eager for life, and she cast that life in wonder. When death came, she could proudly say that all her life she was, in the poet Mary Oliver’s words, “a bride married to amazement.” She is survived by her three children, Matthew (Stephanie) Bruder, Anne (Josh Guthman) Bruder, and Molly (Cory) Fox; two step-children, Jason (Karin) Surratt and Sarah (David Chong) Saluta; 14 grandchildren: Felicity, Sophia, Gabriel, Ethan, Lily, Avery, Noah, Austin, August, Natalie, Eloise, Nathan, Morgan, and Clara; her brother, Frank (Ellen) Riggle; and seven nieces and nephews. Please join us in mourning Mimi's passing and celebrating her life this Friday, August 8, at the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home. A visitation will be held from 4 to 5 p.m., with a service in the garden immediately following. Wear something casual and colorful to fit the season and Mimi’s whimsical spirit. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one of the two organizations close to Mimi’s heart: the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy or the International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation.

Mimi Jean Bruder

July 25, 1946 - July 27, 2025