Obituary: Margaret (Peggy) Grant, 98

Margaret (Peggy) Grant, 98
From the Hyde Park Herald
AUG 10, 2016

Margaret (Peggy) Grant passed away Wednesday, Aug. 3, at the age of 98.  Her affiliation with the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park was a central part of her life. 

Grant had been a Hyde Park resident as a teenager attending the University of Chicago Laboratory High School, and moved back for the rest of her life in 1952 when her husband joined the University of Chicago Divinity School Faculty. Grant was born Margaret Huntington Horton in Middletown, Conn. on Dec. 3, 1917.  Her father, Douglas Horton, became Pastor of the United Church of Hyde Park. He subsequently became the General Secretary of the Congregational Church and later Dean of the Harvard Divinity School. 

Grant graduated from Wellesley College in the class of 1939, and then obtained an MA in Philosophy from Columbia University. She was predeceased by her husband, Robert McQueen Grant, Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, whom she married in 1940.  Grant was a 30-year volunteer at the Oriental Institute her time there includes serving as the volunteer director for a number of years. She was the third honoree of the James Breasted Award since its inception.

Grant had a long-term relationship with Chicago’s St. Paul and the Redeemer Episcopal Church where she had been director of the Sunday School. Some of her other interests included writing, acting and directing in University of Chicago Service League and Hyde Park Neighborhood plays, and attending the opera and symphony.  She was outgoing and enjoyed a wide circle of friends.  At Montgomery Place, the retirement home she moved to in her 90s, she was active in the poetry club and painting, and participated in the French Table and the German Table.

Randolph, New Hampshire was the other important location in her life. She summered in her family compound there for more than 70 years. She always welcomed anyone of any age who came to her door. In the Randolph community she was active in the Randolph Mountain Club, where she was Camps Supervisor, Board Member and Vice-President. She was a lifelong believer in exercise and swam laps every morning until her mid-90s. She was an active hiker and almost every hiker in Randolph has hiked with her. 

Grant is survived by four children, Douglas Grant, Peter Grant, Susan Slattery, and James Snyder-Grant, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Additional survivors include her three siblings, Alan Horton, Alice Tibbetts, and Elizabeth Breunig, 14 nieces and nephews, and 24 grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

A Memorial Service will be held at Chicago’s Montgomery Place in the East Room at 1p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27. A memorial event will also be held in Randolph in August 2017.