We remember Luke on this third anniversary of losing him. Last month, Mary Beth again presented the Luke Mueller Chaotic Good Scholarship at the senior awards event. We had more nominations for it than ever before. The award went to Lenape Valley High School senior Kendra Smith.

Although we don't have a video of that presentation this year, here are Mary Beth's remarks:

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Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to make someone feel better? And you know exactly the right thing to say? And you screw it up anyway?

Your kid spills his juice and he reacts like it’s some huge calamity. But you tell him, “It’s no big deal. Nobody’s perfect. You’re just human.”

That’s how we got one of our family’s most cherished and much-used catchphrases. “Nobody’s human.”

Nobody’s human. It’s been a useful phrase for the Mueller family because, yeah, wow, we make lots of mistakes. And on top of that, each of us is an introverted perfectionist who would rather jump into a ten foot pit than stand in the spotlight next to our mistakes. Especially our son, Luke.

But, over time, Luke learned to handle life, [“Life” - which as you probably know, is just another term for “constantly making mistakes”] Luke learned to handle life, with humor and generosity. He was a big, big-hearted guy and we still miss him terribly.

So it helps us to be able to give this Chaotic Good Award, now for the third year, to a Lenape senior who is also working at being a warm and caring and generous and good-humored person. It’s a delight to read the applications for the Chaotic Good Award, and it’s a chore to narrow it down to just one of these really terrific young people. But that was our job, and we did it.

I’m glad tonight to present the Luke Mueller Chaotic Good award to a kind and caring, smart and goofy, delightfully silly and, almost certainly human, young lady, Kendra Smith.

Here's Mary Beth's presentation of the second annual Luke Mueller Chaotic Good Scholarship to Tyler Shogren of Lenape Valley Regional High School's 2024 Senior Class:
https://youtu.be/lh87QC3CEuI
Thanks again to all who have supported this effort!

Dear family and friends,

Luke's dear friends, the Lumberjacks, have a plan to memorialize Luke in a way he would have loved--as a boss in a nostalgic video game :) The Lumberjacks are backing the game's Kickstarter campaign to the tune of $2500 CAD, the highest tier, and working with the developer to incorporate tributes to Luke throughout (references to Bad Movie Parties, MST3K, Leslie Nielson, etc....). They might even add Luke as a secret boss or character.

We love this idea and want to share the Kickstarter, which still has about $4k CAD to raise by March 2. And if it's funded, we'll share the images here when the game is finished.
https://www.kickstarter.com/p…

Thank you Mike, Jacob, DJ, Frank, Eric, and Bobby for thinking of this very Lukey idea!
Much love,
Hannah, Grace, Ray & Mary Beth

Here's the presentation of the first annual Luke Mueller Chaotic Good Scholarship, by Mary Beth to IV Satterthwait at Lenape Valley High School's Senior Awards event June 6, 2023.

Thanks to DJ Oswin for initiating this wonderful way to remember Luke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Today, September 26, 2022 is Luke's 33rd birthday. And although birthdays are irrelevant to him now, this one is tough for all of us left behind. Especially for his family. He wasn't easy to pin down for a birthday dinner or a birthday cake. He wasn't easily impressed by a birthday card (especially not a store-bought one!). But we usually managed to celebrate him somehow by mid-October. If not, he had no objection to delayed presents or i.o.u.s for future events.
I miss him more than I can express. Happy Birthday, Luke.

Many thanks to all who joined us, live or virtually, at Luke's memorial service. To view the recording of the service, please go to https://www.facebook.com/even…. For more details and the bulletin, go to https://everloved.com/life-of….

A video celebrating Luke's life through clips of films and videos of and by Luke is at https://youtu.be/uFZ8Vi8V6bw.

A scholarship has been established at Lenape Valley Regional High School in Luke's name. If you wish to donate, please send a check, made out to "Lenape Valley Regional High School", with "Luke Mueller Scholarship" in the memo to

Lenape Valley Regional High School
28 Sparta Road
Stanhope, NJ 07874

The scholarship will be awarded to a graduating senior each year at senior awards night. We hope the recipient will be chosen by their peers and teachers for sharing a Luke-like combination of qualities like compassion, empathy, zaniness, and creativity.

Thank you for donating in Luke's memory. Special thanks to DJ Oswin for setting up this fund.

Dear Family & Friends,

We hope you can join us to celebrate Luke's life and memory on September 17th. We will have a memorial service followed by a lunch reception with an open mic for those who want to share memories or tributes to Luke. The service will also be livestreamed. Please visit Luke's memorial site events page (linked below) to RSVP whether you're attending in person or virtually.

Memorial service: https://everloved.com/life-of…
Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 11 a.m. EDT
Abiding Peace Lutheran Church
305 US-46, Budd Lake, NJ 07828, USA

Much love,
Ray, Mary Beth, Hannah, & Grace