Dr. Lilly Mosk Langer

Lilly Mosk Langer, 82, passed away peacefully on June 24, 2025, after a six-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She was surrounded by family and adored until the end.

Lilly was born in Miami, Florida, on November 5, 1942, to Morris and Blanche Mosk (née Klein). She graduated from Columbia University and, in 1990, earned a PhD in medical sociology from the University of Miami. Lilly was a lifelong learner who loved sharing knowledge, especially if it could inspire you to find God or heal from addiction. She was a nutritional and behavioral counselor prior to her ten-year teaching career at Florida International University, where she raised millions of dollars in grant funding for HIV/AIDS research. As a sociology professor, Lilly encouraged her students to be curious, find their passions, and never settle—a motto she modeled until the end.

Before being sidelined by ALS, Lilly was an accomplished portraitist and landscape artist. Her participation in art classes, painting groups, and artist retreats brought her immense joy and peace. She returned from each trip saying, “I met the greatest woman. You would love her.” Lilly could recognize the good in everyone. If you needed her, she was there. But what lit her up more than anything was her husband, the love of her life, Dr. Thomas Anderson, and their pup, Maggie.

Tom and Lilly met at a Miami meditation retreat in 1996 and went on their first date at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. So began the love affair. Three years later, on May 1, 1999, Lilly and Tom married at the very place where it all began: Fairchild Tropical Gardens.

In 2004, Lilly and Tom moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where her love of landscapes grew, inspiring her oil paintings of green, undulating hills with tobacco barns, silos, and cows. Lilly looked forward to setting up her easel at a beautiful farm and painting with her friends who welcomed her into their world. Her exceptional paintings line the walls not only of their home but also of the homes of family and friends. ALS may have ended her painting career, but the masterpieces she left behind will continue to bring love to all who had the privilege of receiving them.

Lilly was good at everything she tried—becoming the best golfer on the course, an expert on veganism, and the discoverer of every exposed root on her favorite hiking trails. Nobody was tripping on her watch. She refused to skip a day walking in the woods around her home. The Upper Bolin Branch Trail was her favorite. “As long as I can walk here, I will be happy.” When she began using a rollator, she found a new favorite trail and never looked back. Being in nature was everything. Until the very day she went into the hospital, Lilly and Tom drove to Umstead Park, unloaded the wheelchair, and Lilly zoomed around with a smile on her face.

Despite her diagnosis, Lilly never complained, and she didn’t let the disease stop her from enjoying life to the fullest. She found great joy and support in the LDS community and loved to take her children to church when they visited. Like everything, Lilly wanted to share her faith: “The people there are so great. You will love them.”

She and Tom also loved traveling to visit their son in Italy, daughter in Miami, friends in Utah, and other wonderful places like Scotland and Iceland. But Lilly was happiest at home with Tom and their pup, Maggie, sitting on the back deck watching the birds and deer. It will be a very long time, if ever, before Tom stops hearing Lilly ask, “Honey, did you feed the deer?”

Lilly is survived by her husband, Thomas Anderson, DVM; children from her former marriage to Jack Langer, Allison and Marshall Langer; sister, Adele Laurence; grandchildren, Jackson, Blake, Sloan, Gabriel, and Julian Langer; sister-in-law, Sharee Mosk; and nieces and nephews, Leah and Matthew Mosk, Jeffrey Laurence (Johnette Jauron), and Leslie Laurence (John Doering). She was preceded in death by her brother, Yale Mosk, and her granddaughter, Maclain Langer.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests donations be made to the Duke ALS Clinic (https://alsclinic.duke.edu/how-to-help/) or ALS United (https://www.alsunited.org/) in Lilly’s honor.