Judy Mintel is a recording engineer and producer in partnership with her husband, Richard Mintel. She married Dick on July 24, 1971, at Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus. They went on many adventures together, recording concerts and listening to music. Their daughter, Josephine Therese Mintel, was born on June 19, 1991.
After her husband’s death in December 2014, Judy focused on preserving and archiving the large number of classical music recordings that the couple had made together over their 43 years of marriage.
Recently, Judy has begun volunteer work for Syrian Youth Empowerment (“SYE”), a non-profit organization that helps Syrian and Iraqi high school students come to the United States to further their education. Judy’s SYE assignments have come from all over Syria, including Aleppo, Latakia, Tartus, Idlib, Damascus, Masyaf, and Al-Bayadiyah. Several were Syrian refugees; one was displaced by the war and lived in Mersin, Türkiye. Another was a Syrian attending the United World College-Atlantic in Llantwit Major, United Kingdom. Judy has also mentored students from Iraq: one from a Yazidi village in the Kurdish region near Sinjar and one from Baghdad. By the end of 2023, most of Judy’s SYE students had submitted college applications and were admitted to at least one college or university. Several mentees have been accepted with full-ride scholarships (Tufts University, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, St. Lawrence University, Smith College, and Berea College). These students have begun their studies in the U.S.
In addition to her family, teaching, and volunteer work, Judy is passionate about classical music, radio, and higher education. Judy has been a member of the Board of Directors of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Chamber Players. She was a co-producer, with her husband, of recordings of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and of that group’s radio broadcast series on WFMT, syndicated worldwide. Judy was also on the Board of the Borg Studio, which provided music lessons in Bloomington, Illinois, for young string players using the Suzuki Method. The Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming, was a regular summer vacation spot. Judy produced and hosted numerous talk radio broadcasts focusing on community service issues. She also provided financial and other support to classical musicians, international students, and higher education institutions. Judy is a member of the Audio Engineering Society.
Judy was born in San Francisco and spent her formative years in the Panama Canal Zone and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In 1970, Judy graduated from the University of Chicago College with an A.B. in American History, and in 1973, she received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. She was admitted to the Bar in Illinois, Maryland, and Virginia. Judy became Associate General Counsel for the State Farm Insurance Companies in Bloomington, Illinois, where she worked for over 25 years. Concurrently with her State Farm Career, Judy taught at the University of Chicago Law School, the University of Illinois Law School, and the Katie School of Insurance and Risk Management in the College of Business at Illinois State University.
Richard and Judith Mintel -1995