Megan Michele Ruddy

Megan Michele Ruddy, age 47, of Bowie, Maryland, departed this life peacefully on September 11, 2023, surrounded by her husband, Joseph C. Ruddy III, and other close family members.

Megan was born on December 14, 1975, in DeKalb, Illinois, the second of two daughters to Patricia and Joseph Reidy. Both Megan and her elder sister Rachel were born on December days when the thermometer reached 60 degrees only to be followed by bitter cold and mounds of snow. The Reidys moved to Maryland in 1977, first to Greenbelt, where Megan attended elementary school, then to Burtonsville, where she attended middle and high school.

After graduating from Paint Branch High School in 1993, Megan enrolled at Rutgers University, then transferred to the University of Maryland at College Park, where she completed her undergraduate degree with honors in 1998.

Megan worked for several years with the Erickson Living organization at Oak Crest Village in Baltimore County before matriculating at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America. Megan served as an assistant editor of the Catholic University Law Review, where she published an article on the privacy rights of rape victims in high-profile trials. She also took special pride in volunteering with the family law clinic, where she assisted families—and especially women and children—in need of legal assistance. Megan graduated from the Columbus School of Law with high honors in 2005.  After passing the Uniform Bar Exam for Maryland, she completed a judicial clerkship focusing on family law with the Honorable Julia B. Weatherly, Associate Judge Prince George’s County Circuit Court.

While in law school, Megan met Joseph C. Ruddy III, another graduate of Columbus School of Law; they married in 2005. Megan and Joe are the proud parents of four children, Joseph C. IV (Joey 17), Jacob (16), Matthew (Matty 14), and Emily (11).

Although Megan enjoyed sports, home-improvement and television-game shows, and any activity designed to showcase her knowledge, her memory, or her wit; her true passion was her children. She cared for them with love and devotion, spending endless hours assisting them with homework, shuttling them back and forth from school and sports practices and games, and volunteering to support them with the Cheverly Boys and Girls Club and St Pius X Regional School and Church in Bowie. She loved them dearly, and their reciprocal love radiated throughout the Ruddy and Reidy families.

In 2018, Megan began working as Counsel for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, Department of Veterans Affairs. She drafted nearly 600 decisions for veterans and their families while serving as Counsel, and 98% of those decisions were marked as outstanding or exceeding expectations. Megan received an early promotion and multiple writing awards and the Board’s Unsung Hero/Silent Warrior award while Counsel for the Board in recognition of her exceptional work despite her significant health challenges during the past years.

Besides her husband and her children, Megan is survived by her parents, Patricia A. and Joseph P. Reidy, her sister, Rachel, niece, Hannah, and grandniece, Hayden, all of Laurel, Maryland; on the Ruddy side of the family, she is survived by Joe’s parents, Joseph and Joanne C. Ruddy Jr. of Cheverly, Maryland along with in-laws Andrew and Catherine Rehkemper; Austin and Elizabeth Hatch; John and Deborah Ruddy; John and Rosemarie Timmermann; Timothy and Bridgid Hartman; Paul Ruddy; Theresa Ruddy; Joanne Ruddy; and William Ruddy, as well as twenty nieces and nephews; she is predeceased by her brother-in-law James (2019). All remember Megan’s sweet, kind, and loving personality and her enormous strength of mind, heart, and soul.

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