Dumbaugh

Margaret “Peg” Dumbaugh, a longtime resident of Butler, died at Hospice of the Fisher Home in Amherst, Mass., on Wednesday, March 4, 2026 — four days shy of her 98th birthday. She moved to Massachusetts in 2017, to be near her remaining family. She was a resident of Loomis Village in South Hadley.

Peg was known in Butler for her quiet consistency in her work, for keeping the courage of her convictions, and for her selfless dedication in everything she did. Born in Clairton, Pa., she was the valedictorian of her high school class and was the only member of her family to go to college, majoring in journalism and English at Westminster College.

She first worked for the McKeesport Daily News in Pennsylvania. She loved the news business, and she was a renowned and dedicated practitioner of meticulous research and ethical reporting. She also was a strong supporter of the public schools and the right to a quality education. She was one of the founders of the first public school kindergarten in Butler.

Soon she began working in the Butler Area School District, teaching advanced English and serving as faculty adviser for the school newspaper, the Skyliner. After leaving her teaching position at Butler, she was hired to teach English at St. Fidelis Seminary. She was the only woman, the only non-Catholic and the only layperson on the faculty. She remembered it fondly, and she maintained friendships and communication with several seminarians and friars — as she did, in fact, with many of her Butler High School students. She still had a folder marked “letters from students” in her desk when she died.

In her 40s, Peg returned to get a master’s degree in English at Carnegie Mellon University. She later became the director of school community relations at the Butler Area School District. In 1980, she created the annual Butler Distinguished Graduate award in which the year’s graduating seniors choose to recognize the achievements of a previous Butler graduate. In 2000, she also co-chaired, with Lisa Konesni, the Butler Golden Tornado Foundation’s “Visions” capital campaign. She received numerous honors for her career achievements in Butler, including being named Outstanding Woman of 1986 by the American Association of University Women, and being named Woman of Distinction in 1994 by Soroptimist International of the Americas.

Peg retired from teaching and became a stringer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but after her grandchildren started high school, she ran for and was elected to the Butler school board in 1993, serving for a time as its president and for four years as chair of its policy and legislation committee. When she ended her tenure on the board, the Butler Eagle acknowledged her departure with an article on Dec. 24, 2004, entitled, “After 50 years, school legend stepping aside.”

In Massachusetts, Peg delighted in attending the naturalization ceremonies in Northampton every July. She made new friends, but sorely missed her old friends. She kept her sense of humor and her interest in politics until the very end. She never missed voting in an election. She wrote her last published piece, a letter to the editor of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, in November 2025 when she was 97.

Some time this summer, Peg Dumbaugh’s cremated remains will be interred in Pennsylvania. She will be laid to rest next to her loved ones who preceded her in death: her beloved husband, local businessman and noted musician, Wilbur Dumbaugh, and her younger daughter, Tracey Dumbaugh Schlicht, an equally noted musician and career nurse.

Peg is survived by a daughter, Kerry Dumbaugh, and son-in-law Ray Ahearn, of Holyoke, Mass.; and by two granddaughters, Audrey Schlicht, of Tacoma, Wash., and Kerry McCormick and her husband, Dan, of Chicago, Ill.

Please sign the guest book at www.butlereagle.com.