Former resident retires after long career as volunteer
Virginia Morgan Obrig, 94, of Greenwich, Conn., learned early the value of being involved in one's community. Granddaughter of early Peabody settlers, Obrig recently retired from the Greenwich community legislature, the Representative Town Meeting, after 25 years of service.
Obrig's grandparents helped found Peabody in the late 1880s. She is the granddaughter of W.H. Morgan, longtime editor of the Peabody Gazette and J.H.C. Brewer, an early and successful Peabody merchant. Both men played a large role in Peabody's founding and its early growth.
Obrig's parents were George and Carrie Brewer Morgan, both of whom were involved in politics and important local issues when Obrig was a young girl growing up in Peabody.
"I was taught to always stay busy," she said.
George Morgan also was an editor of the Peabody Gazette and Carrie Morgan was active in the women's suffrage movement at the turn of the century.
The family moved from Peabody when Obrig was eight years old, but she has never forgotten her early ties to the community. She and her family have followed the restoration of the Morgan House and she has named the Peabody Historical Society as a beneficiary of memorial funds at her death.
Obrig moved to Greenwich in the early 1950s and has been active in the community since then. She taught English at Greenwich High School from 1958 to 1974. While a teacher, she founded the Signettes, a service organization for female high school students. At the time, young girls were not encouraged to take initiative in volunteer projects.
After her retirement from teaching she became a member of the Representative Town Meeting and remained active until October 2002, when she retired.
Said George Atkeson, chairman of the RTM delegation, "Obrig's participation has been exemplary. She has great empathy for the citizens of Greenwich and the work she did on the committees of the RTM was always outstanding."
Obrig has credited her parents and grandparents for instilling in her a sense of duty to community. Her lifetime habit of volunteering came from watching her ancestors' involvement as they struggled to firmly establish the town of Peabody.
