Margaret Louise Shick

Margaret Louise (Peggy) Shick, 102, passed on August 21, 2020. She was born on August 4, 1918 in Carney’s Point, NJ to John and Margaret Holloway. Her grandparents were Quakers and she was of Scotch-Irish, Hungarian, and Croatian descent. Her only sibling was younger sister, Mary (Tillie). When Peggy was four, her family moved to a farm near Wind Gap, Pennsylvania and the Pocono Mountains. She attended classes there in a one-room school house. At 10, she was sent back to New Jersey to assist in the care of her grandmother and was placed in the seventh grade. Peggy graduated high school at age 15 and from Penn State University at 19, the youngest Penn State graduate to that time. As a sophomore Peggy entered Penn State’s new Medical Technology program and with three other women became the University’s first graduates of the program. She viewed this as one of her proudest achievements and worked in the field for 38 years.

Peggy met her husband-to-be, Charlie, while at Penn State where she joined the sisterhood of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority. Peggy and Charlie married in 1939 and moved to Michigan when Charlie was hired by the Michigan Conservation Department and Michigan State University (MSU) as a Game Biologist. At the outbreak of WW II Charlie joined the US Navy and headed to the West Coast. With two children, Victoria and John, in tow, Peggy returned to Pennsylvania to live with Charlie’s parents. Their third child, Tom, was born later that year.

After the war, in 1950, Peggy and Charlie moved to Okemos, MI where she lived for the next 65 years. She first worked at Sparrow Hospital, but soon found her nitch as the only Medical Technologist employed by MSU’s Olin Memorial Health Center. Peggy retired 27 years later, in 1977, as the Supervisor of Olin's Medical Laboratory which had grown to some 25 employees. She designed the Health Center’s new laboratory, but retired before construction was completed. Earlier, in 1975, she joined the P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization) sisterhood where she held several leadership offices.

Peggy loved life and wanted to see how others lived theirs. She became an inspired traveler, first with Charlie and, subsequently, with her son, daughter, and grandchildren. She visited nearly all the States, dozens of national parks, and as many as 35 foreign countries, including Great Britain, Mexico, China, Egypt, Peru, the Galapagos, the Canary Islands, Thailand, Greece, India, Tibet, and Jordan. In 2012, she made her final overseas adventure to Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia…at the age of 94. Peggy resided in Albuquerque, NM, for the past five years near her daughter.

Charlie predeceased her on Christmas Day, 1994. She was forever thankful to her P.E.O. sisters who helped her adjust to widowhood. Also preceding her in death were her parents and her sister. She is survived by her three children; seven grandchildren, (Jason, Jennifer, Michelle, Jill, Michael, Kelle, and Mitra); four great-grandchildren, (Rachel, Heather, Charlie, and June); a great-great-granddaughter (Eliza); a nephew (Vince); and two nieces (Patricia and Aprille).

Peggy's family and friends are blessed to have had her in their lives for such a long time. She was a model of grace, humor, and enthusiasm; and an inspiration on living life to the fullest. She left a treasure of wonderful memories as a source of solace and contentment.