Mrs. Margaret “Peggy” McDowell Dickson Marsh, age 77, a resident of Washington, died Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017, at Vidant Medical Center.

A memorial service, officiated by Pastor Woodlief, will be held 11:30 a.m. Saturday Dec. 16, 2017, at Bright Funeral Home, 405 S. Main St., Wake Forest. Burial will follow in the Wake Forest Cemetery.

Peggy Marsh was born in Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 1940, daughter of Waverly Dickson and Margaret Dickson. She attended Mt. Vernon Seminary; Mary Baldwin College; Katherine Gibbs Boston Secretarial School, Lewis & Clark College–Nursing.

On June 23, 1961, she married Col. Samuel Marsh and set out on an eclectic career in which she held positions of increasing importance. Being a fastidious homemaker (so much dirt, so little time) she truly enjoyed her first job at MUDCAT scheduling cleaning of industrial pollution spills and abatement ponds. Her other positions were Executive Secretary Metrocable Engineering/ Secretary Technical Intelligence Team, Defense Intelligence Agency/Technical Aide and Senior Secretary Intelligence Planning Staff, Mitre Corp/ Corporate Security Officer, Director Employee Health Plan, and Secretary to President, RBI/ Church Secretary Trinity Presbyterian Church/ Legal Secretary and Office Manager, Law Offices of John T. Donelan.

The position Peggy enjoyed and took the most pride in was Personal Aide to Col. Trevor Dupuy, the renowned author and military researcher.

Despite her work schedule, Peggy pursued volunteer work in mentoring abused and neglected children, tutored children in reading, and was responsible for establishing volunteer programs for tutoring children to read in two school districts.

Of all her awards Peggy took the most pride in a small trophy presented her as a young girl by Miss Rueland, owner, Camp Robin Hood. Miss Rueland was a major influence in Peggy’s life and helped instill in her a confidence and an unshakeable sense of duty that would come to hold tight together Peggy’s future family when jobs were lost and the future bleak.

Surviving with Peggy’s husband of 56 years are two children, Samuel W. Marsh IV, Waverly D. Marsh; a sister, Beverly Dickson Spitzer; three nieces, Catherine Spitzer, Margaret Elliot, Renee Gaunt; and two nephews, David Spitzer, Todd Spitzer. A sister, Anne Dickson Ravenel, and a nephew, Ian Spitzer, predecease her.

Flowers may be sent to Bright Funeral Home, 405 S. Main St., Wake Forest, NC 27588, 919-556-5811.