The Norwich High School (NHS) Hall of Distinction Committee has selected six NHS alumni to be included in the Hall of Distinction. Individuals selected have made outstanding contributions to their chosen fields, including community services, the arts, medical professions, military service, and more, with their contributions having a distinctive impact on a local to global level.

Margaret “Peg” Marshall: Midwife, educator, and pioneer in children’s health, Class of 1962

By Harry Graves and Mary Jane (Brooks) Tottey

In the halls of Norwich High, she was Margaret Marshall, that quiet, studious classmate who had been voted Most Likely To Succeed. To physicians, mothers, and babies in the far corners of the world, she was known as “Peg” Marshall, a highly respected nurse-midwife.

Her sister Beth later explained the apparent name difference: “There were four Margarets in her class (DeStefano, Hayes, Hosford, and Marshall) so she retained her formal name while all the others used the more informal Peg.”

Her classmates say that even in high school, Ms. Marshall thought internationally. Life-long friend Faith Fernald remembers that when the class treasury had some unspent funds, they voted to donate it to a worthy cause.

“Margaret suggested we send it to a struggling African country,” she recalls. Then, she continued with a reflective glint in her eye, “The class voted to do that, and afterwards our class president George Cass called our gift ‘the Marshall Plan.’”

A line under her yearbook photo reads, “High aims for the future,” and she immediately started the climb. Following graduation in 1962, she received her first of several degrees from the University of Buffalo. Eventually, she would earn two Master’s degrees and a doctorate, along with numerous citations from various universities. Importantly, she also became fluent in Spanish as much of her future work would be in Latin America.

Peg started her real international work in Asia in 1980, in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border, with services run by the International Committee of the Red Cross. There, she trained traditional birth attendants (TBAs) and supervised barefoot doctors.

Later, she moved to the Ali Matan Refugee Camp in Somalia. These two experiences sparked her deep interest in the care of refugees, displaced persons, and all people affected by conflict and poverty.

She worked closely with midwives and physicians in numerous countries, partnering and mentoring many in the medical profession. Through long-standing relationships, she was able to influence policy, education, and practice mandates for midwives.

To improve child health, she realized it would be necessary to battle other diseases as well. During her time as Senior Technical Advisor for Maternal and Child Health and Infectious Diseases at USAID, she provided leadership for the control of malaria and attention to antimicrobial resistance. With other collaborators, Peg led the creation of the South American Malaria Initiative.

Margaret Ann “Peg” Marshall was both educated and an educator throughout her entire life. The list of degrees you can find behind her name is lengthy: CNM, EdD, MPH, MLA, MA, and FACNM.

Equally impressive is the list of hospitals that summoned her to share her knowledge. Certified as a nurse-midwife in the US and other countries, she provided midwifery care at Baltimore City Hospital in Maryland; served as Nurse-Midwifery Administrator at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, New York; was the Director of Nurse-Midwifery at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Elizabeth, New Jersey; and Coordinator of the US/Mexico Exchange Program for the Georgetown University Nurse-Midwifery program.

She was employed by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) as Director of the Special Projects/Global Outreach Program. She served on the clinical faculty at Georgetown University and the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Nurse-Midwifery Educational Programs.

She authored and co-authored curricula and training manuals for community health workers, traditional birth attendants, nurses, and midwives on family planning and maternal newborn health.

She co-authored the Life-Saving Skills Manual for Midwives for the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), a key resource for enhancing the skills of frontline midwives. The manual was translated into Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia, and Czech, later to be used in World Health Organization training modules and implemented in numerous countries.

In 2010, Peg was honored by the ACNM Foundation with the Dorothea M. Lang Pioneer Award for her exceptional vision and innovative leadership in the advancement of American and global maternal and child health.

Despite working in close proximity to many of the world’s nastiest diseases, it was cancer that would eventually take her life on June 3, 2021. Condolences poured in from near and far, particularly South America, where she spent so much time teaching the next generation of midwives.

To no surprise, Peg – such a citizen of the world - once again became a small-town girl; she is buried near her grandparents in the Hillside Cemetery in Georgetown, NY.

Margaret will be inducted into the Norwich High School Hall of Distinction on October 24, at 1 p.m. in the Norwich High School Library. The event is open to the public.

The NHS Hall of Distinction Committee aims to recognize and commemorate alumni of Norwich high schools who have made outstanding contributions in the areas of, but not limited to, profession, community service, commerce, religion, and art. Established in 2024, this Hall of Distinction is intended to serve as a vision and source of pride for our community and student body.

To nominate an NHS alum for the Hall of Distinction, complete the nomination form found at norwichcsd.org/documents/district/211781 and submit to NCSD Event Coordinator Rich Turnbull at rturnbull@norwichcsd.org, or drop it off at the District Office at 89 Midland Drive.