Margaret "Peggy" Porter

Margaret “Peggy” Irish Porter, a lower school art teacher at the Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge for thirty years, died of cancer on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at her home in Concord.
Born in Rangeley, Maine in 1928, Mrs. Porter was the daughter of the late Arthur Irish and Merriam (Downes) Irish. Arthur Irish was a superintendent of schools in Maine. Merriam Irish was a teacher. Although Mrs. Porter was born in Rangeley, Maine she spent many summers of her youth in Turner, Maine, where her family had lived for over a hundred years and her paternal grandfather Henry L. Irish and great-grandfather Henry D. Irish had been country doctors. Growing up in Maine in the 1930s, Mrs. Porter remembered that she learned to ski almost as soon as she learned to walk.

Mrs. Porter received a B.S. from Simmons College in 1950 and an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Mrs. Porter met her husband, Douglas Porter, now deceased, in the late 1940s. When they met, Mrs. Porter was the president of the Simmons College Outdoors Club and Douglas Porter was a student at MIT. They were divorced in 1984.
Mrs. Porter began her work career as an art editor in the Education Division of Houghton-Mifflin where she worked from 1953-1957. She handled production of illustrations for elementary, high school, and college textbooks. From 1958 to 1966 she worked as a historical researcher for the “Notable American Women” series, a biographical dictionary sponsored by Radcliffe College. From 1966-1967 she worked as an archaeological manuscripts editor for the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. She also did free lance editing work for The Pilgrim Press in Boston; Harvard University Press; and the Harvard University Middle Eastern Center. In 1969 Mrs. Porter began a 31-year career as art teacher at what was known then as The Buckingham School. She was known for her belief in the importance of art education for all children. Her quiet determination to help kids experience the world and their gifts through their hands and their hearts was long-standing. She retired in 2000.

In addition to her career as a teacher, over her lifetime Mrs. Porter was also a devoted artist. She studied ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, and welding with well-known teachers such as David Holleman, Peter Abate (former head of the sculpture department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts), and John Heller. She was long-time member of the Emerson Umbrella artists studios in Concord, the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, and the Concord Art Association. She was president of the New England Sculptors Association from 1983-1986.

She is survived by her daughters, Elizabeth Abigail Swan Porter of Washington, DC and Suzanne Clare Porter of Waltham; a brother James Irish of Jefferson, NH; and a granddaughter Emma Claire Kay.



MEMORIAL SERVICE
Sunday - June 7, 2009 - 3:00 p.m.
Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts
40 Stow Street
Concord, MA 01742

GIFTS IN HER NAME MAY BE MADE TO:
Lexington Arts & Crafts Society
130 Waltham St.
Lexington, MA 02421

Arrangements under the care of:
Glenn D. Burlamachi
CONCORD FUNERAL HOME
74 Belknap St.
Concord, MA 01742
www.concordfuneral.com
978/369-3388

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