South Hadley, MA – Margaret “Peg” Dumbaugh died in Hospice Care of the Fisher Home in Amherst on March 4th, 2026 – 4 days shy of her 98th birthday. She spent eight decades living in Butler, PA, then in 2017 moved to Massachusetts to be near her remaining family. She was a resident of Loomis Village and a parishioner of Center Church in South Hadley.
Peg was the only member of her family to go to college, majoring in journalism and English. After graduating, she worked for the McKeesport Daily News in Pennsylvania. She loved journalism, and was a dedicated practitioner of meticulous research and ethical reporting. Soon she began working in the Butler Area School District, teaching advanced English and serving as faculty adviser for the school newspaper.
When she left her position at Butler, she taught English at the St. Fidelis Seminary. She was the only woman, the only non-Catholic, and the only lay person on the faculty. She remembered it as one of her most rewarding teaching positions, and continued a lifelong friendship and correspondence with several of the friars and seminarians.
In her forties, Peg returned to school to get a Master’s Degree in English at Carnegie Mellon University. She later became Director of School Community relations for the Butler School District, implementing major initiatives to communicate with parents and the public about school activities.
Upon retiring, Peg became a stringer for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. When her grandchildren started high school, she ran for and was elected to the Butler School Board, serving as its president and chairing its Policy and Legislation Committee. She was quietly consistent, remarkably selfless, and had the courage of her convictions in all she did.
After moving to Massachusetts, Peg delighted in attending the naturalization ceremonies in Northampton every July. She never missed voting in an election. Her last piece of writing, published when she was 97, was a letter to the editor of the Gazette, “Suckers and Losers,” criticizing Donald Trump’s use of this reference to US military soldiers who died in war. She kept her extraordinary sense of humor and her politics to the end.
Peg Dumbaugh’s remains will be interred in Pennsylvania, next to her husband, Wilbur Dumbaugh, and her younger daughter, Tracey Dumbaugh Schlicht, who preceded her in death. She is survived by her daughter Kerry Dumbaugh and her son-in-law Ray Ahearn, of Holyoke, and her two granddaughters, Audrey Schlicht of Tacoma, WA, and Kerry McCormick and her husband Dan, of Chicago IL.
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