Margaret H. Burlin

Born Feb. 2, 1920 in Clinton, Massachusetts, the daughter of John H. and Christine S. Hunton, Peg spent her early years in South Berwick, Maine, where her father managed a woolen mill. On her mother’s untimely death in 1929, she moved to live with her maternal grandmother in Melrose, Massachusetts. Skipping ahead two years at school, Peg graduated from Melrose High School with the Class of 1936. She completed Boston School of Domestic Science in 1937, later matriculating at Wheelock College in Boston where she majored in Early Childhood Education and graduated with the Class of 1942. Peg then spent the next year teaching the early grades at Athol MA Elementary School.

On a Wheelock summer internship to Chatham in 1941, Peg met her future husband, Charles W. (Bill) Burlin, Jr., then a Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, whose family owned a summer home in Chatham. A day after Bill’s graduation as an Ensign (USN), they were married at the Naval Academy Chapel on June 10, 1943. Then came the life of a Navy wife starting in the middle of WW II. First to FL for 6 weeks, then New London CT for 3 months, followed by a long auto drive under difficult wartime conditions across the United States to the West Coast, where she stayed for a year while her Bill was away on sea duty. Returning east to Tampa FL Peg bore Bill III, the first of three fine sons. At War’s end, she was reunited with her Bill, back from submarine duty in the western Pacific. Next came moves to NJ for three years, where her second son Dave was born, and to FL, TX, WA and CA for three more years during the Korean War, much of which Bill spent in the western Pacific, while she, by herself, had to manage her family of two small boys at home. Another two years were passed in CA, where her third son, John, joined the family. Three years were next spent in FL, after which came four years in Washington DC, then three final Navy years in beautiful Paris, France.

Peg returned with Bill and their sons to Navy retirement in Chatham in 1965, having made eighteen moves in their twenty-two Navy years. She commenced teaching “special needs students” in Chatham Elementary School in 1972, at the same time taking additional course work at Lesley College, which led to a B.S. in Education awarded in 1976, with a Special Education Certification. Peg and Bill transferred their membership in Rock Spring Congregational Church, Arlington VA, to the First Congregational Church of Chatham, where Peg became an avid “ringer” in the Hand Bell Choir. Through her teaching experience, Peg was made aware of pressing community needs, and became involved in various capacities, from Secretary to Chairman, in the Monomoy Community Services Board, the Monomoy Youth and Family Foundation, the Chatham Substance Abuse Council, and the Chatham Human Services Committee. Devoted to her students, Peg was an active member of the Chatham Citizen’s Scholarship Foundation, and its President from 1972-1975. An accomplished weaver, with her large 4-harness Macomber loom Peg wove beautiful runners, table mats, shawls and other items, often working with yarns in her favorite blue-green aqua colors. Her maternal Scottish heritage once drew her back to ancestral roots in the “weaving” town of Alva, Scotland, in search of her clan’s Tartan pattern to weave on her loom. An active member in various capacities of the Boston Weaver’s Guild, Nauset Weaver’s Guild, and Cape Cod Handweaver’s Guild, Peg regularly attended Guild meetings with her Expert Weaver friends Dorrie Burton (formerly of North Chatham), and Caroline Rogers, founder of the Textile Museum, North Andover MA. Retiring in 1986 from “special needs” teaching after fourteen years, Peg had time to join Bill traveling to annual WW II Submarine Veterans conventions in many different States, Naval Academy Class reunions, visiting family and friends, and embarking on motor home trips throughout our country and Canada. Peg’s adventurous, interesting, well-traveled life had learning and meaning, she absorbed and contributed, she shied not from heavy responsibility, she hung on with tenacity through trying times, and she left an indelible mark on many of her Chatham students. She will be ever missed.

Peg leaves behind Bill, her husband of 68 years 8 months; three sons, Charles W. Burlin III of Damariscotta, Maine, David S. and Kate Burlin of Virginia Beach, VA, and John R. Burlin and Jacqueline Mathers of Elk Grove, California; four grandchildren, Wil Burlin of Taos, New Mexico, Matthew Burlin of Portland, Oregon, Michael Burlin of Seattle, Washington, and Carl Burlin of Madrid, Spain; and one great granddaughter, Harlo Burlin, of Taos, New Mexico. Surviving in addition are sisters-in-law, Aaria Hunton of Westfield, New Jersey with her family members Gail, Andy and Beth, and Kay Burlin, of Fort Belvoir Virginia, with her family members Ann, Mary Jane and Patty. Peg was pre-deceased by her brother John H. Hunton, Jr.

She most recently celebrated her 92nd birthday with family members at her side.

Memorial Services will be held at the First Congregational Church, Chatham, MA, at 11:00 AM Saturday, February 18, 2012, with reception following in the Church vestry.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Chatham Citizen’s Scholarship Foundation of America (CCSFA), Att’n Dorothy Tripp, Chatham High School, 425 Crowell Road, Chatham MA 02633, or to the First Congregational Church of Chatham (Bell Choir), 650 Main Street, Chatham MA 02633.