written by Charles S.K. Scudder – Scudder Association Foundation President

We are saddened to report the death of Edwina Scudder Youth in Levittown, Pa on May 15, 2021.  She was born on August 2, 1934 in Huntingdon, Long Island to Edwin and Susan Scudder.  As a child, Edwina developed a passion for medicine and received a nursing degree from the Columbia University School of Nursing in September, 1955.  She became head nurse of the surgical department at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, and later at Mercer Medical Center in Trenton, New Jersey.

Edwina was a long time Board member of The Scudder Association, Inc. (the predecessor to The Scudder Association Foundation, Inc.) beginning in the early 1990’s.  In the late 1990’s she also became a member of the Corporate Board of The Christian Medical College Foundation and later the Chairman of the Board of Directors.  During that period in the US, the CMC Board ran two capital campaigns one of which was to finance the Ida S. Scudder Center for Women and Children.  Edwina also helped raise U.S. government funds and donations for the operating expenses of a non-profit childbirth clinic at the Vellore hospital providing healthcare access for the poor and marginalized.

In response to the Tsunami disaster in India in 2004, as Chair of the CMC Foundation Board of Directors, Edwina travelled to Vellore to support CMC’s response to the Tsunami which included rendering help to hard hit fishermen and purchasing and replacing educational materials for children that had been washed away in the flood.  CMC also assisted in funding permanent housing for those who had lost their homes in the disaster.

Edwina was a charter member of the Lutheran Human Rights Organization of America founded in the 1950’s.  She also held regional and national leadership positions in the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League.

Edwina enjoyed dancing, roller skating, knitting, gourmet cooking, entertaining, reading, creative writing, music and Tai Chi.  She also traveled extensively in the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and India.  She fondly recalled many Scudder family reunions and enjoyed summers on Shelter Island with her Scudder cousins

Edwina will be sorely missed by her family and the Scudder Association Foundation, Inc.