Claudia Wehdeking Friend

With heavy hearts we announce that Claudia Wehdeking Friend, age 86, of Columbia, MD passed away Thursday, June 26, 2025 at Howard County General Hospital. She was born May 25, 1939 in Berlin, Germany to the late Hermann and Christa Wehdeking.

Fleeing the chaos of war, her family left Berlin and headed south, ending up in the beautiful town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where she developed a love of the mountains. Later in life, she fell in love with the beach, where she would bring her four children to play each day while their father was at sea. In high school she learned how to play guitar, which gave her life-long joy, and she could always be counted on to lead family and friends in sing-a-longs. After high school, she enrolled at Frankfurt University, where she met a certain southern naval officer and gentleman named Joseph Friend. They married on May 2nd, 1959. By 1965, Claudia and Joe had a family of six; with great discipline, she continued her education, earning a Bachelors in Secondary Education from Old Dominion and a Masters in Library Science from the University of Maryland. She worked as a librarian at Catonsville Community College and Glenelg High School. She retired in 1999.

Claudia was an active volunteer and citizen. For decades she lent her leadership to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the German Society of Maryland, the German Circle (as founder) and various political campaigns. Perhaps her crowning service achievement was working at the Serenity Center for many years in her 70s, where as president, she helped provide a safe place for those struggling with addictions and mental health issues and gave them courage to carry on, as she herself learned to do. Claudia wore a constant, empathetic smile, and her charisma won her many friends. She is sorely missed by her loved ones.

Claudia was preceded in death by her parents and her husband Joe (2016). She is survived by her brother, Volker and wife Roswitha; daughter, Kerstin Howarth and husband Anthony; son, Lawrence and wife Maribeth; son, Gregory; son, Timothy and fiancé Nina; grandchildren, Corey and wife Chloe, Christa, Carina, Kevin, and Jo; and great-grandchildren Landon, Trystan, Jayden.

A celebration of Claudia’s life will be conducted at 12 p.m. on Friday August 8th at the Interfaith Center in Wilde Lake. A reception will follow the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family will accept memorial contributions made to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Howard County, MD. Link: namihowardcountymd.org.

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