SOUTH STRAFFORD — It is not an exaggeration to say that just about everywhere you turn in South Strafford, you will likely see something Peggy Thorp had a hand in organizing, creating, renovating or acquiring.

Whether it was the abundant recreational opportunities for children or places such as Barrett Hall and Our Lady of Light Chapel, Thorp left her impact in nearly every corner of the town.

“You could almost do a little walking tour of South Strafford and point out buildings in town and say, yes, Peggy Thorp contributed to that in one way or another,” her daughter, Andersen, said. “She left a legacy in the village of South Strafford.”

As in the oft-used cliche, a sense of community carries much more significance when it is transformed into action, as Thorp did on so many occasions.

The first recipient of Strafford’s Citizen of the Year award 25 years ago, Thorp, who died Dec. 28, 2022, from heart failure at age 87, was indefatigable when it came to serving her town, church and civic organizations.

“She was the first choice of the membership,” said Melvin Coburn, who was president of the Lion’s Club when it named Thorp the town’s inaugural Citizen of the Year in 1998. “She did a lot of different things for youth recreation and had done so much in the community, her church, the schools and PTA.”

Thorp was the oldest of eight children born to Timothy and Ann Sullivan in Ware, Mass., and she grew up in Three Rivers, Mass. She excelled at school and graduated high school at 16, joining the workforce as a secretary with a large agricultural company.

“At times, she was the major breadwinner for the family,” her daughter Andersen, the oldest of Peggy and John Thorp’s three children, said.

By 19, Thorp was in charge of the secretarial pool at work with more than 20 secretaries, her son Eric said.

Thorp met her husband, John, at a dance when they were both in their early 20s. They married in 1956 and for the next 10 years lived in 14 different towns in Vermont as John Thorp, who died in 2006, worked on the construction of interstates 89 and 91 as a mechanic and welder.

The couple settled in Strafford in 1966, and Peggy’s civic-minded nature went to work immediately.

“The most meaningful thing I learned from my mother was community and civic responsibility,” said Andersen. “She was incredibly altruistic, whether here or in Hartford.”

Andersen said her mother’s upbringing, the oldest in a large family, formed her character early on.

“She always was caring for people and always making sure people were safe and well provided for the best she could have possibly done, and that probably began when she was a child herself, looking after her sisters and brothers,” Andersen said.

Joey Hawkins came to know Thorp when she moved to Strafford in the late 1970s and the two were trustees of Barrett Memorial Hall, a hub for community events.

Hawkins moved to town after Thorp and others had been working for years establishing recreational opportunities for the youth in town.

“It was going strong before we got here,” Hawkins said. “It was super valuable for the kids in Strafford, and many can look back on it and will tell you that.”

Eric, born in 1962, said a group of about five individuals, that included his mother, laid the groundwork in the late ’60s and the ‘70s for a soccer field, a swimming area, swim lessons, tennis courts and a ski hill with a rope tow on Harrington Hill, which Peggy and John operated for years. She was also instrumental as a member of the Strafford Athletic Association acquiring the Red Barn, used today by the recreation department, and the Tyson gym.

“The children benefited from it all, and today their grandchildren benefit,” said Eric, who remembered as a youth carrying five-gallon cans of gas 200 yards to reach the ski tow, which was gas-powered.

“They can get heavy when you are only 10 or 11 years old,” Eric said.

One of Thorp’s more-visible roles was that of a trustee for 20 years of Barrett Memorial Hall, a gathering place for community events.

“The question is not what she did for Barrett Hall but what didn’t she do for Barrett Hall,” Eric, the youngest of the Thorp children, said. “My mother loved Barrett Hall. She did a lot of fundraising for the hall, sending out letters to raise money.”

A new roof, improving drainage around the foundation and installing an elevator were some of what Thorp was a part of as a trustee.

“Always, if someone gave money, even if it was just 50 or 25 dollars, they would always get a letter back from my mother thanking them,” Eric said.

Another effort that Thorp threw herself into wholeheartedly was raising scholarship money for children in town to attend the one-week Green Mountain Conservation Camp sponsored by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.

“She did that for many, many years,” Joey Hawkins said. “She may not have made it happen it single-handedly, but just about.”

Hawkins said Thorp contacted businesses, churches and others when another sponsorship was needed.

“People would always step up and do it,” Hawkins said.

Eric and Andersen estimate their mother raised money to send more than 1,000 children to the camp where they learned about first aid, shooting skills, wildlife, orienteering and more.

David Harris’ son attended, but not willingly.

“He didn’t want to go but we made him, and he loved it,” Harris said.

Jean Essex grew up with the Thorp children and knew their mother for at least 50 years. Both were parishioners at Our Lady of Light Chapel, the Catholic Church in South Strafford.

“She was just a great woman,” Essex said. “She was equally dedicated, if not more so, to the church than the town.”

Our Lady of Light Chapel does not have a permanent priest and shares a visiting priest with three other nearby towns, so he would rely on someone in each town to keep track of everything, Essex said.

“That was Peggy,” Essex said. “She ran the sacristy, kept the books, did the bulletin, communicated with the priest, ordered supplies. That is what she did, a lot of organizing, and she was critical to getting it all done.”

Essex said Thorp also kept up with the parishioners and mailed articles and other pieces of information.

“It is a small town and a small parish, and she was a key person for all of us,” Essex said.

Hawkins, who was not a parishioner at Our Lady of Light, recalled her friend’s words at the annual ecumenical services among the different faiths at Thanksgiving: “When it came time to say what we were grateful for, Peggy would say, ‘I am so grateful to the people of Strafford and South Strafford for welcoming me and my husband when we moved here.’ ”

Exemplary organizational skills learned at a young age were perhaps why Thorp was able to juggle so many different tasks and contribute to different groups at the same time.

“You can tell when Peggy Thorp joined an organization because the files were always in order,” a resident was quoted in Thorp’s obituary.

For 20 years, from 1977-1997, Thorp was the secretary at the Hartford Memorial Middle School.

“She knew where everything was, she knew every kid and what they needed,” Hawkins said. “She was the archetypal grandmother to them.”

Regarded as a mentor, Thorp formed many lifelong friendships with students and staff at the school.

Vicky Trombly, now a teacher at the Hartford Career and Technical Center, fondly remembers her time in middle school when she became Thorp’s office helper.

Trombly was in sixth grade in the early 1980s, and because she arrived early on the bus, she would notice Thorp, with “huge horned-rimmed glasses,” working in the office, writing shorthand and performing other tasks.

“I was intrigued with Peggy,” Trombly said. “I would see her take shorthand and wonder what she was writing.”

It wasn’t long before Thorp asked her young student if she wanted to help out. For the next three years, Trombly said she became Thorp’s “little personal assistant,” putting mail in the boxes, delivering items to the classrooms and any other tasks Thorp needed done.

“She was such a warm and caring person,” Trombly said. “She was so quiet and so patient and a really good listener. We just clicked. She was a true light for me and a pretty special person.”

The Citizen of the Year award confirmed what so many already knew and felt about Thorp.

“Strafford was a town that truly appreciated my mother’s talents and gifts,” her daughter Andersen said.

Those talents and gifts and her community-minded spirit were expressed always in a gracious way that made working with Thorp on any endeavor a pleasure, say those who remember her.

“Everybody liked her because Peggy was easy to like, easy to talk to,” said Coburn, the one-time Lion’s Club president.

“She was an incredible force in town but in a humble way,” Hawkins, her longtime friend, said.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.