From the Helm - A word from our chairman
On March 20 we lost our Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus Peg Wallace. “I’ve had a great life,” she said just days before her passing at age 84. “I’ve had a lot of fun and I’ve caused a lot of trouble, and I heartily recommend both.”
Peg had been a lobbyist for the National Organization for Women and helped establish the first shelter for battered spouses in Anne Arundel County. She was one of a small group of volunteers who created the Eastport Historical Committee twenty years ago to preserve Eastport’s neighborhood heritage. She loved all things Annapolis, but her heart was in Eastport. I remember her working tirelessly, but with great humor, collecting “stuff” for the annual rummage sale that financed the Museum in those days. This committee created a number of award-winning exhibitions including the Boat Yards of Spa Creek, the African- American Community of Eastport, and the Eastport Walking Tour. In 2001, the Committee evolved into the Annapolis Maritime Museum, and Peg became its first Chairman. She was an active contributor to the end.
Peg loved racing Moths, Comets, and Cal 25’s on the Bay – on “her” Bay, “her water.” She was an active member of the Mount Zion United Methodist Church of Eastport. But above all she lived and breathed the Museum.
She was thrilled by the current educational programs that are exposing hundreds of elementary and middle school children to their maritime heritage and their Bay. She passionately wanted the Museum to survive Hurricane Isabel and to open the McNasby Oyster Company building — not just because it is the last oyster-packing plant left in the area, but because of the opportunity it would provide to offer these programs to thousands of kids, not just hundreds. She could hear the seminars, classes, and concerts and see the exhibitions that would make McNasby’s a world-class educational facility, a true asset to the whole community.
Peg’s favorite picture of herself was the one at right, of her standing on the deck in front of the McNasby Oyster Company sign. A restored McNasby building and the programs that it will support will be her legacy. Many people are making gifts to the McNasby renovation fund to fulfill this legacy. If you’d like to help complete this project in her memory, please send your gift to the Museum and signify: McNasby Capital Fund for Peg, or call Jeff Holland to arrange a hard-hat tour and see for yourself the amazing progress we’re making.
Annapolis Maritime Museum |
PO Box 3088 |
Annapolis, MD 21403
410 295-0104
office@amaritime.org
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