Satisfaction Comes with Sharing

By Elizabeth Johnson

Sharing is natural for sisters Peggyann Hutchinson, Medford, Ore., and Patsyjane O'Malley, Jacksonville, Fla. A lesson undoubtedly learned in childhood is now a valued way of life. Their family encouraged hard work and higher education, and today, the sisters encourage others the same way. Their successes are a model and a means for helping others succeed.

Growing-up

Peggyann Hutchinson, dressed for Easter service, poses on the balcony at Hokona Hall center, March 28, 1948. Military barracks in background were used for dormitories and classrooms.

Born in Montana, raised during the Great Depression, Peggyann and Patsyjane learned to love new places by traveling at an early age. To meet demands of their father's U.S. Forest Service job, Peggyann says, "The family traveled first. If any money was left over, then we ate." In 1935, they moved to Nebraska to help Midwest farmers replant after the Dust Bowl. A year later, they transferred to New Mexico where home was the ranger station nine miles from Corona. Then three years later, they moved to Mayhill. Peggyann says, "It was a very remote and isolated place to grow up, about 10 years behind the rest of the country." She and her sister graduated from Cloudcroft High School in classes of only four and five students, respectively. Their father was afraid these small-town girls might get lost at a large university, so Stephens College, in Columbia, Mo., was the next stepping-stone for Patsyjane. A year later Peggyann followed.

By 1947, they were ready for the "soaring" population of 5,000 at UNM. A unique time in campus history, many incoming students were veterans returning from World War II. Peggyann roomed at Hokona Hall. Patsyjane resided half a semester in military barracks on campus used by the Navy during wartime. Peggyann saw television for the first time—a test-pattern broadcast—during her radio speaking class at the opening of KOB.

Both sisters were honor society members. Peggyann graduated in 1950 with a degree in radio speech journalism. Patsyjane studied to become a dietician. She was one of only two students at the time majoring in dietetics. After graduation, she completed an internship at Mills College in Oakland, Calif.

Pursuing Careers

Patsyjane (left) and Peggyann Hutchinson enjoy the shade on the Hokona Hall balcony July 11, 1948.

Trained for a career in the college food service industry, Patsyjane worked for seven years at Purdue University in Indiana, where she met her husband, a graduate student in pharmaceutical research. He and Patsyjane moved to Richmond, Va., where he taught at the medical college and Patsyjane ran an elementary school cafeteria. "I discovered how much I liked working with the student cooks, many of whom were the wives of local farmers," she says. "That's where I learned to confront my fear of public speaking at weekly employee meetings," she adds.
Her husband's career took the couple to Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York. During this time Patsyjane's career expanded. She worked at the Downey VA Hospital in Chicago, and at Pennsylvania's Doylestown Hospital. When they settled in Jacksonville, Fla., she finished her career at St. Vincent's Hospital, where she managed diets for open-heart surgery patients. Today, she misses sharing retirement with her husband, who passed away unexpectedly in 1991.

Peggyann's career began at KGGM radio station in Albuquerque, even before her college graduation. KGGM was on the second floor of the Kimo Theater, where the restroom was on the fourth floor near the projection room. If people were late returning to their desks, they usually were upstairs sneaking a peak at a comic or short film, Peggyann reports.

During the Korean War, Peggyann joined the Navy for four years. She edited a monthly publication for fleet journalists and later did public relations for the Navy's WAVES recruit training regiment. Her eyesight prevented her from becoming a commissioned officer, so she pursued graduate studies at the University of Denver. She notes that her preference for "writing for the eye rather than for the ear" led to her next position as a newspaper journalist.

Peggyann moved to Medford, Ore., and became a relief reporter for the Mail Tribune. She had a different job every day. Substituting for absent reporters and the city editor, she covered all beats except sports.

In the mid-'60s she was in line to become the next city editor but was told, "Medford is not ready for a woman editor." Instead, she and the Tribune negotiated an agreement to travel one month every year with the National Newspaper Association in exchange for two weeks more vacation. Her trips often coincided with the world's next "hot spot," and she invariably landed in an area just before a major crisis occurred. She has seen about 150 countries, including Vietnam, South Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, South America and Russia, many several times. While traveling, she wrote economic and political articles, and occasional travel pieces. For eight years, she was business editor and during the last 10 years of her career she wrote and edited her newspaper's section for mature readers. She has been a board member of the National Federation of Press Women for 50 years. The Oregon Press Women honored her with the Spirit of Press Women Award at its 50th anniversary dinner. Although she retired in 1998, she still works at the Tribune as an informal adviser.

Giving to Others

Retirement has not slowed these sisters. Peggyann went to the British Isles last year, China the year before, and she goes to London every May. Patsyjane's idea of a great get-away is retreating into the wilderness on 10-day pack trips. She has traveled the Northwest Passage to Iceland, Greenland and the Arctic Circle. Three years ago, she and Peggyann went to Antarctica and South America.

Patsyjane and Peggyann have enjoyed such travels, and along with their careers and comfortable retirement, they are reason enough to be satisfied. But these sisters know that feeling good also comes from sharing with others. A national board member of the American Association of University Women's Legal Advocacy Fund, Peggyann raises money to help college and university staff women to fight job-related discrimination. On the Board of Trustees of the Presbytery of the Cascades, she helps make financial and real estate decisions for area churches.

In the 1950s, to reach teenagers and help bridge the generation gap, Peggyann began providing trophies for local 4H winners. Then in 1968, she established Medford High School scholarships. By chance last year, she met one of her recipients, Kurt Winchell. Twenty years after receiving a scholarship provided by Peggyann, Kurt personally thanked her for helping him attend college, earn his degree, and begin a career at the Mail Tribune, just as his benefactor before him had done. Peggyann switched her scholarships to UNM in 1983.

Patsyjane established the Wilson Scholarship through the American Dietetic Association, in honor of her first employer. Awards go to graduate students who are working in the field. The sisters have been particularly generous to UNM. Both are members of UNM's Tom L. Popejoy Society and New Horizons Society. Patsyjane sponsors three Presidential Scholarships, one of which is endowed. A student she sponsored for four years graduated last spring summa cum laude. Recipients of Peggyann's two Presidential Scholarships also graduated last year and now attend medical school. Peggyann and Patsyjane find getting to know their recipients via letters and meetings at annual UNM Presidential Scholarship Dinners especially satisfying.

"People don't know the joy of giving or how important it is until they give themselves," Peggyann says. These women inspire and encourage others by sharing of themselves as role models for genuine concern and generosity.

UNM Foundation Inc.
Two Woodward Center
700 Lomas Boulevard NE
Albuquerque, NM 87131

505-277-4503
1-800-UNM-FUND
Fax: 505-277-4435

Spring 2002

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• Location, Location, Location! UNM's Distinguishing Asset
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• UNM Honors Albert Black Family