Maria (Maja) Katharina Pfender passed away peacefully on February 4, 2026, surrounded by family, after a remarkable life spanning nearly a century and two continents. Deeply rooted in the traditions of her past yet always ahead of her time, she embodied both old-world grace and a modern spirit.

Maja was born on July 3, 1928, in Reidlingen, a historic village along the Danube River in southern Germany. The daughter of the town's seamstress and master baker, she grew up at the heart of village life. In 1954, she married Emil Pfender, a PhD student from a neighboring village. When he was offered a research position at the University of Minnesota in 1964, she packed up their household and set out with their young family on a three-week transatlantic journey.

What was meant to be a two-year stay became a lifelong home. Through Emil's academic work, they traveled widely and formed lasting friendships across the globe. Maja welcomed people of all backgrounds with warmth and openness and on any given weekend, students and scholars from around the world enjoyed her gourmet meals and engaging conversation. Beyond their table, they put down roots in other ways too, together planting a forest, watching thousands of trees grow over decades into a place they cherished. They were married for 62 years until Emil’s death.

Maja had an eye for beauty which she turned into a professional life alongside raising her family. Her practicality and creativity found a natural outlet in kitchen design, and she worked for many years as a designer at the International Design Center in Minneapolis. She later opened the first Poggenpohl kitchen studio in the United States, introducing ultra-modern German kitchens to a new audience.

Maja had many talents including sewing, knitting, crocheting, gardening, and canning. She had a nurturing spirit that extended to every living thing, tending her plants, feeding the pheasants, foxes, and deer that visited her yard, and caring for her beloved dogs and cats. She loved opera and classical music, and on Sundays at the 9:30 a.m. Mass, she would sing out hymns in German while the rest of the congregation sang in English. She embraced new pursuits well into later life. In her sixties, she took up the cello and ballroom dancing. She loved long walks and remained active well into her nineties, and when Minnesota winters drove her inside, she kept moving by doing laps up and down her stairs. Maja was not easily deterred.

Maja was a selfless, attentive, and generous mother who loved her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with a fierce and unwavering devotion. To her, they were perfect, always and without exception. She was their greatest champion, the kind of mother and grandmother who made everyone she loved feel seen, cherished, and capable of anything.

Maja expressed love in many ways, but most memorably through her baking. Her braided zopf bread, cheesecake, fruit tarts, apfelkuchen, and famous German Christmas cookies were shared with family, friends, and neighbors, bestowed on those she deemed worthy of her efforts. Her recipes, needless to say, she kept to herself.

Maja is survived by her children and their spouses: Roland and Mary Jo Pfender, Norbert and Bette Pfender, Corinne and Tim Noyes; her grandchildren: Kurt Pfender, Cass Pfender, Loren Pfender and fiancé Jesse Kommer, Maia, Julia, and Clara Noyes; and her great-grandchildren: Cassidy and Freyja. In Germany she leaves many relatives including her brother and his wife, Walter and Ilse Staiger, and her dearest first cousin Elizabeth Leippert along with their families.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, May 15, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. at the Church of the Assumption, 51 West 7th Street, St. Paul, with Father John Malone officiating. Visitation will begin at 9:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations in Maja’s memory may be made to Conservation Minnesota or Agate Housing Services.