Margaret Fox Hutchinson

Margaret “Peggy” Fox was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York (Westchester county) to Edward B. Fox and Amelia Yale Fox. After local primary schools she went to Northfield School for Girls in Northampton, MA at age 15, then majored in math at Colby College in ME. In 1958 she went to Harvard for a Master of Arts in Teaching. While there she met Ben Hutchinson, then a grad student at MIT. They were married in August 1962. After teaching middle-school math for two years, Peggy quit and moved with Ben in July 1963 to a starter house in Lexington, MA. She gave birth to Arthur (later “Art”) in October 1963, and to Eddie (later “Ed”) in March 1966. With Ben as the boys grew she hiked, backpacked, biked, and cross-country skied. They visited his parents in Atlanta in the spring, and her parents at their Adirondack summer home in Alder Creek, NY. When the boys reached their teens, Peggy went back to full-time math teaching at a private high school for a year. She then shifted to tutoring of individual math students, paid directly by their parents. The private school lent her a room for free so that students could come in free periods. Student success was in the school’s interest. She made similar arrangements at other private schools, and also saw some public-school students in a home office after the family moved to a larger house in Lexington in 1977. Peggy was very good at tutoring. She had a gift for quickly finding out exactly why a student’s math performance was poor, by having them work a few selected problems, writing and talking while she watched and listened. Word of mouth got her plenty more requests for tutoring, even when she raised her rates. In 1986 Peggy and Ben moved to North Bethesda, MD in suburban Washington, DC when Ben changed jobs. They bought a townhouse. Art was out of college and Ed halfway through. She was soon tutoring again at private schools and in a home office. They enjoyed several trips to the UK. Their first one was in 1977, from MA. In 1985 in MA, Peggy and Ben had caught the sailing bug crewing for neighbors. In 1988 in MD they bought a 31-foot Tartan cruising sailboat, and sailed it on the Chesapeake Bay for 19 years. Peggy wanted to be co-captain, not just crew, so with Ben’s support she took a 2-week resident “Womanship” course in Tampa in February and achieved her goal. In June 1989 Peggy and Ben flew to Boston to see granddaughter Kate, born to Art and his wife Helen. For years they flew ~monthly to see her and sister Emily, born in 1993, and Sarah, born to Ed and his wife Jane in 2000. All visited in MD when old enough. Peggy and Ben retired in 1997. In 1999 they moved to a house in Davidsonville MD with a big tree-covered lot and a pool, loved by grands and neighbor kids. In 2002 and after they took big overseas trips: New Zealand, Iceland, Galapagos, Italy, Peru, and Chile. In 2005 their younger son Ed died of leukemia at age 39, the worst tragedy of their life together. Ed’s daughter Sarah was 5. She has done well; now a senior at Dartmouth. In 2014 Peggy and Ben moved to the Collington continuing-care retirement community in Bowie MD. For ~4 years Peggy was healthy and active. Then hereditary spinal stenosis and other health issues prevented travel and limited her mobility. A sudden overwhelming infection took her life 9 days after successful surgery for a fall and hip fracture on 9/11/22. Peggy is survived by her husband Ben, son Art, three adult granddaughters, and four great-grandchildren, two boys and two girls, ages from infancy to 5 years. Eventually but not soon there will be a celebration of life for family and close friends.

Margaret Fox Hutchinson

June 15, 1936 - September 21, 2022