Peggy Fenner

Peggy Fenner, a shining star in so many lives, was tragically killed in a plane crash on Catalina Island on October 8, 2024.

Peggy received her BA in speech communications from Penn State University, where she met her husband Bill. After graduating, she worked at a “who’s who” of tech companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting with a role in NASA’s aerodynamic simulation supercomputing center. Peggy showcased her talents at six other Bay Area companies before finishing her career at Yahoo!, the most popular finance/stock market website in the world at that time.

Peggy was not someone who bent to the way the world is “supposed” to work - she made the world bend to how she thought it should work. She was a strong force to be reckoned with. For example, when she found it hard to get people with the right experience to apply at NASA, she took matters into her own hands and started teaching a class at Foothill College to instill the skills she needed people to have.

After retiring from Yahoo! to focus on her family, Peggy was able to realize her dream of owning animals on a farm. When living in the mountains of Woodside, California, Peggy said, “Wouldn’t it be neat to have a llama walking around, looking in the kitchen windows?” While that never came to pass, she did start her farm in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, with alpacas, soon adding miniature donkeys, a pig or three, two scottish highland steer, and two goats. She never tired of her animals, spending time in the pasture with them, and always thought of ways to improve their lives. She even constructed a “pig palace” with a heated concrete slab so that the pigs could be warm in the cold Pennsylvania winter.

Peggy approached life with curiosity, joy, love, and generosity. She wanted to share these values with her family and the community of loved ones she created. From putting a gigantic travel group together (can you say, 42 people from all over the US to visit Oahu?) to bringing friends to Lakers, Dodgers, and Chargers games, Peggy did her best to share her enthusiasm for life with others. A trip to Disney with Peggy was unforgettable! Meeting Peggy, you couldn’t help but feel a connection - even people who met her once felt as though they had known her forever and were drawn to her friendship. She also loved being a mom and an aunt. Her children, niece, and nephews meant the world to her. She did everything she could to be their “fun mom” and “fun aunt,” supporting them in the ways that they needed.

An avid runner, Peggy approached a 10k race with the same ease and enthusiasm most people reserved for their daily routines. She ran the Disney World “Dopey” - a 5k, 10k, half and full marathon, across the span of four days - three separate times (and was looking forward to a fourth). Her collection of race medals - over 75 - exceeded any attempt to display them. She continued to run through two knee surgeries, and in keeping with her shaping the world to her will, went through doctor after doctor until she found one to support her running instead of telling her to stop.

To try to satisfy her curiosity about the world, Peggy got a Masters in International Business and Policy from Georgetown University. She was part of the “covid cohort,” who had to forgo the trips that were meant to provide immersive learning, but that only made it more rewarding to complete her degree.

With the goal of eventually being able to fly the family, including the dogs, between Santa Monica and Chester Springs, she was working on her private pilot license. She wanted to be able to get into an aircraft and feel just as comfortable inside it as in a car. Toward this goal, she regularly had adventures with her flight instructor Angela, her friend Gonzo and his instructor Ricky, dropping in on airports all over California just to visit a restaurant, visit the “plane graveyard” in Victorville, or pick Josh up from school.

She is survived by her husband Bill, their children Julia and Josh, her brother Cliff, his wife Karina, her niece Eliana and nephew Quinn, and innumerable friends. Her animals - dogs Sandy and Bailey; cat Winter; alpacas Joey, Johnny, Speedy, Rosencrantz and Titus; miniature donkeys Fanny, Bunny, Laverne and Shirley; pigs Pablo, Jolene and Solene; highland steer Norman and Leon; goats Billy and Jojo - will miss her forever. 

We are all now left to lead our lives in a way that would make Peggy proud. The defining question going forward: “What would Peggy do?”

Please consider donating in her memory to one of the following charities:

- The Society for Advancement of Pet Pigs: https://pigplacementnetwork.org/help/donate/

- The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation: https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/community/foundation/support/donation