Margaret Rigg's Obituary
Margaret (Peg) Rigg, aged 82, of St. Petersburg, Florida died at Bayfront Hospital on July 16, 2011, from pneumonia after a serious fall in May. She was born on December 14, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the late Carl Hazlett Rigg and Ruth Standish Massey Rigg. She studied at Carnegie Mellon University and the Chicago Institute of Art. She was graduated from Florida State University and received an MA from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education.
In 1965 she joined Robert Hodgell and James Crane as a member of the Visual Arts Department at Eckerd College when the school was still known as Florida Presbyterian College. Professor Rigg was a superb mentor in other ways than in the classroom. She led by example in her work in calligraphy, painting, mixed media, printmaking, and sculpture. For eleven years prior to her arrival at Eckerd she was Art Director for motive magazine, a progressive Methodist publication. While an editor for motive she became deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement, fought for social justice by putting herself on the line during civil rights demonstrations, and was once imprisoned for her beliefs. Her association with the organization SCEF along with Anne and Carl Braden was longstanding and courageous. Her work as a calligrapher was featured on two CBS special telecasts, I Need to Hear From You (1968), and Keep in Touch (1971). She was a Fulbright scholar in Korea in 1973, and has traveled extensively elsewhere, most particularly in Japan and Nicaragua. She was the author of three books, and she had over sixty one-person exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, South America and the Caribbean. An exhibition of her work was included in the 1987 Cultural Olympics in Seoul, Republic of Korea. She established the Possum Press, and designed and published three of her own books, as well as books by other authors.
At Eckerd College she founded the Women's Resources Committee which still flourishes today. She retired from Eckerd College in 1998, following thirty-three years of teaching. She inspired the concept of Autumn Term for first year students, which continues to serve as the foundation of the College's mentoring program. In recognition of this innovation and her years of exemplary mentorship, in 2008 she received the John Satterfield Outstanding Mentor Award from Eckerd College. Locally she was founder and first president of the Florida Gulf Coast Society of Scribes, and was quite active in the Tampa Bay area through that society as well as through the St. Petersburg Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and Florida Artists Group. Her personal papers will go to the Archives of the Boston University School of Theology Library. In 2006, she became a resident of Westminster Suncoast, where she started an art class. Once a teacher and mentor, always one! She is survived by hundreds of devoted friends all over the world, her cousin Torrey Isaac and her family, and the incomparable dog Cooper. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the St. Petersburg Meeting of the Society of Friends and the Art Department at Eckerd College (Margaret Rigg Scholarship Fund). A Memorial Service celebrating her life will be held at the St. Petersburg Friends Meeting House, 130 19th Ave. S.E. , FL 33705, on September 3, at 2PM.
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