Margaret "Peg" Elizabeth Agati

Peg leaves behind an indelible impression on those who called her spouse/partner, sister, mom, nana, aunt, niece, cousin, friend, Chief, teacher, mentor, and neighbor. Peg’s compassionate heart and service to others demonstrated her faith and her commitment to better her students, her community, and those around her.

Peg was born on April 29, 1946, to Alfred Maurice Dora and Doris Elizabeth (Sevigney) Dora in Keene, New Hampshire. Peg, with her younger sister Susan, grew up on Wilford Street in Keene, and attended St. Joseph’s Elementary School. Her commitment to others should come as no surprise as her father worked at the post office, and her mother was a longtime registered nurse. Graduating from high school upon the completion of her junior year, Peg was part of the last graduating high school class of Our Lady of Mount Monadnock before it closed. That fall she rode in her father’s station wagon to Baltimore where she enrolled at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University). Four years later with her bachelor’s degree firmly in hand, and after cementing so many life-long friendships with her classmates, she began her career in education.

Her first classroom was in Greenbelt, Maryland. She welcomed her classes, and the challenges that came with being a new teacher of teenager students. Her time in Maryland was memorable because it was in those three years that she met - and after a courtship of only two months somehow agreed to marry - the love of her life who became her husband of 54 years.

Together they moved back to New Hampshire. From 1972 – 1999, Peg taught in Londonderry, as part of the inaugural faculty for a brand new school building, now known as Londonderry High School. She and her fellow colleagues (colloquially known as ‘The Golden Eagles’) opened the new school, and stayed there as the district quickly transitioned the institution from a middle to a senior high school. Four years later, Peg gave birth to her son.

In Peg’s 27 years at the school, she became head of the Home Economics Department. Working with an incredible team of fellow home economics teachers throughout the district, she overhauled the curriculum and rejected the cultural stereotypes of “cooking and sewing” that then-existed. They introduced popular classes students began flocking to; including, Independent Living, Financial Literacy, and Child Development. Her work resulted in generations of students who learned capabilities no other subject matter could teach: home management, financial acumen, parenting and child care, interpersonal communications and healthy relationships, and self-sufficiency skills. More importantly, these skills were taught to everyone, across the entire breadth of the district’s student population. It was no wonder that former students sometimes found her later in life, checking in with her or saying hello, and recounting their fondness for her classes, and how much the lessons they learned in class resonated with them throughout their lives.

Academically, Peg continued her own education. After several years, she obtained her Master’s degree in Education at Notre Dame College in Manchester. She also served for several years on the New Hampshire leadership board for Delta Kappa Gamma International Society for Women Educators.

Peg’s service did not end when she retired from teaching. A few months later, she started working as a parish secretary at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in Londonderry, a position she held for nearly a decade. She also served as a leader of one of the parishes bereavement meal teams.

She was a remarkable woman who never stopped caring for others throughout her life. Peg sewed quilts, blankets, dresses, gift bags, costumes, table runners that are in the homes of those whom loved her, and that went to charities for newborn children who she never met. She cooked and baked countless meals for others, embodying her belief that providing a warm, delicious meal was the most sincere way to show love for another. She corresponded by mail, email, phone, and text with her friends and family, never missing an opportunity to remind them (or their children) that she was thinking about them fondly and often. Her concern for others ruled her actions in her life, and signified her embodiment of Jesus’ call to love and serve one another.

While she passed away in Litchfield, Peg forever considered Cheshire County her home. There was nothing more she would have enjoyed than another summer spending sunny afternoons at her seasonal camp north of Keene, surrounded by family and friends, waiving hello to neighbors, and asking whether we might see any fireworks tonight. It is impossible to overstate how much she will be missed.

Peg is survived by her loving husband Giacomo “Jack” Agati; her son Benjamin & daughter-in-law Jennifer; her grandson Daniel; her granddaughter Charlotte; her sister Susan & brother-in-law Thomas Walters of Derry, New Hampshire; her niece, Elizabeth “Betsy” Walters of Decatur, Georgia; her sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, Mary Jo and David Dussault of Livonia, New York, Joanne and James Salamone of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Theresa and Louis Petelin of Livonia, New York; her other 11 nephews and nieces and their children; and her myriad of cousins and other family members, friends and colleagues, and neighbors everywhere she lived.

Peg’s passing has left an enormous hole in the lives of those who love her, but her legacy of love, service, and faith will carry on in the many lives she touched.

Due to the season, a wake and funeral service will be held in April so people may attend with less sorrow for her loss and more celebration for her time among us. Specifically, an afternoon wake/visitation shall be held on Tuesday April 7, 2026, from 4:00 – 6:00pm at the Foley Funeral Home, 49 Court Street in Keene, New Hampshire. A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated the next day, on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at 10:30am at St. Bernard Church, 185 Main Street, Keene, followed immediately after by a committal service at St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Main Street, Keene.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made in Peg’s name to the New Hampshire Food Bank, a program of Catholic Charities NH, by mail at New Hampshire Food Bank, 700 East Industrial Park Drive, Manchester, NH 03109, by phone at 603-669-9725, or online at nhfoodbank.org. The New Hampshire Food Bank has been a charity that Peg supported for decades, and she would be honored if you remembered her by helping others this way.