Local Volunteer Honored For Decades Of Service

Members of Community Action of Southold Town will pay tribute to a woman who has served the community selflessly for decades on Sunday.

A spring brunch in honor of Peggy Murphy will be held on Sunday at noon at the North Fork County Club to honor her decades of service to CAST and Southold Town.

Proper attire required; tickets cost $50.

"Southold is a better place because of Peg Murphy and her commitment to those in need," Denis Noncarrow, CAST president, said.

Murphy, who was born Margaret Anne Fischer to Dr. S.B. and Peg Fischer, is one of four children.

Born at Eastern Long Island Hospital, she was raised on Horton Lane in Southold; she and her husband, James Murphy, still live in the family home. 

Murphy and her first husband, Robert Dow, returned to Southold -- after she had studied at Oneonta State Teachers College -- to care for her younger siblings after her mother's death.

The couple had four children, Robert, Jr., Kathleen, Steven, and Allison.

Teaching was Murphy's deeply ingrained vocation -- she taught for 29 years, beginning at Cutchogue Elementary School and later, in the Southold school district as a kindergartren, third, and fourth grade teacher who later taught reading.

In addition to her legacy with students, Murphy has left a mark on Southold Town through her work with the Southold Historical Society, where she has been a member since 1990; the Southold Sunshine Committee; a member of the Southold Town 350th Celebration Committee; lead organizer of the Southold Town Summer Concert in the Park Series on the Green at Silversmith’s Corner in Southold for 20 years; a member of the Southold Town tree committee, coordinating the Arbor Day activities in each of the elementary schools in the town; a member of the Southold Town landmark preservation committee; a member of Greenport’s Stirling Historical Society, and a member of the Daughters of the Revolution.

In addition, she has served as an Association of Suffolk County Historical Societies member.

Murphy has also designed and taught “Field Trips at Your Doorsteps,” a program utilizing the museums and historic places in the school districts of Southold Town.

In 1988, she married James Murphy and they have spent the following years together enjoying their children and grandchildren, traveling, participating in community activities, and socializing with their friends.

Murphy joined CAST in 2003 and serves on the board of directors, where she was also elected president of the board of directors in 2009. 

During her four terms elected to the board, Peggy, CAST member said, has worked to secure a centralized location for the CAST office, attract volunteers and donors, and coordinated an annual supper supplied by the CAST board and staff.

She has also worked to secure a staff to serve the needs of the community and ensure that while clients' emergency needs were served, staff always worked with the families to develop their skills and seek self-sufficiency, CAST members said.