SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – After 56 years as a trustee and 40 years as treasurer of the Springfield Humane Society, Margaret “Peggy” Knoras has retired at the age of 90.
“When I was first contacted by two trustees of the humane society, Marjarie Martel and her mother, Elizabeth Mason, and asked to join the board, I had a baby and a white plastic seat on the kitchen table, and that was 56 years ago,” Knoras recalled.
Knoras turned 90 in July and announced her retirement from the board in the middle of that month. The board began making arrangements for someone to take over her bookkeeping responsibilities, eventually appointing a fellow trustee to learn the job.
Knoras, who lives near the humane society, had been handling the bills for 40 years, preferring to work with paper rather than entering information into a computer. “I’m only 1 mile out from the humane society, and I loved doing it,” Knoras said.
Her dedication to volunteering extends beyond the humane society. She has also worked on election checklists for more than 30 years and served as treasurer of the Catholic Daughters at St. Mary’s Catholic Church for four years.
Knoras began working for attorneys in Springfield in 1965. She was employed by Whitcomb, Clark, and Moeser then, and, while working there, she learned to prepare income taxes. She was pregnant with her first child, Mary Jo, at the time.
She later worked as a bookkeeper for Douglas Richards and then Bruce Lawlor, both attorneys in Springfield, and began performing mortgage title searches for the law office. When Lawlor moved to Washington, D.C., and closed his office, Knoras subsequently started her own title-search business in 1997. She continued operating her business until 2022, retiring at the age of 86.
The humane society’s staff and board of trustees recently gathered at Ciao Popolo in Bellows Falls to celebrate Knoras’ retirement and to recognize her decades of service. In a message honoring Knoras, the organization described her as an integral part of the humane society for more than half a century, crediting her dedication and compassion with helping shape its mission and touch countless lives.
“I enjoyed the years that I was involved with the humane society, and I met many wonderful people through them,” Knoras said.