Muriel Hill Cronin
On Sunday, July 25, 2021, Muriel Hill Cronin died peacefully at Montage Hills Senior Living in Denver, Colorado. She was 84 years old.
Born in Denver, Colorado on August 17, 1936 to Katherine (Stanley) Hill and Robert McClaughry Hill, she was also raised there and attended Denver public schools. Along with her husband John, Muriel moved to Tempe, Arizona in 1966, where she lived for over 50 years. She moved back to Denver in 2017 to be near her son and other close family members as she began to suffer from dementia.
Muriel graduated with honors from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, earning a B.S. in Biology in 1958. She then had several stints working as a laboratory technician, first at the University of Illinois, then in her father’s laboratory at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, followed by three years at Yale University, and later for a short time at Arizona State University.
While working at the University of Colorado, she met John Read Cronin who was a graduate student in biochemistry at the time. They married on March 30, 1963 and were together until John’s death in 2010.
Muriel found her greatest joy and accomplishment in her roles as a wife, mother, and friend. She also dearly loved her pets, dogs and cats both, and singing in the church choir. She was perpetually optimistic, had a wonderful sense of humor, and a smile for everyone she met, even until her final days.
She is survived by her son Paul Cronin of Denver, her daughter Martha Cronin (George Hall) of Wellesley, MA, two step grandchildren, Eleanor and Charles Hall, son in law Ray Salinas of Tempe, two sisters, her twin Susan A. Hill of Denver and Katherine Harris (Frank) of Boulder, CO, a nephew Robert Harris (Rachel) and their daughter Naomi of Arvada, CO. She was preceded in death by her brother Peter S. Hill, her husband, John R. Cronin, and her youngest daughter Sarah Salinas.
Muriel was a long-time member of University Lutheran Church in Tempe, AZ, where a memorial service will be held later this fall.