Peg Fay-Feder Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

We mournfully announce the death of Peg Fay-Feder (born Margaret Flora Fay), 73, of Cincinnati, Ohio. Peg passed away peacefully, surrounded by loving family members on the morning of July 29, 2022, several weeks after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. Peg was born on June 5th, 1949 to Martha and James Fay. After graduating as valedictorian from Woodward High School in 1967 Peg began a 32 year career as a mainframe programmer with Proctor and Gamble. Her proudest achievement at P&G was an IT project supporting the introduction of Chep pallets into the United States. Before this project, goods were shipped on single-use pallets that either went directly to a landfill or were inadvisably reused, leading to failure and potential injury. Now, you can see blue multi-use Chep pallets in use everywhere in the United States, a great environmental victory. Whenever Peg saw one of those pallets she would tell us, “I had a hand in that!” and we hope that you will think of her now every time you see one as well. In 1974, Peg graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati, earning a bachelor of science degree in Information Processing Systems. In 1975 Peg married Sam Feder and they were married for 46 years until his death in 2021. Together they enjoyed their many pets, their travels, gaming, sailing, collecting, and other adventures great and small. For many years one of Peg’s main interests was cat breeding and showing. She was one of the first people in the United States to breed Cornish Rex and later became a cat show judge. Peg was passionate about animals and was a huge supporter of Ohio Alleycat Resource (OAR) and other charities working to improve the lives of domestic animals and to preserve the wilderness so necessary to wildlife survival. One of Peg’s favorite places to visit when she was with her family in Alaska was the Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge and she loved it when her visit coincided with the annual Sandhill Crane Festival. Rachel Silver, a young friend of Peg’s from the cat show period of her life says, “As much as I loved Peg for our shared interest in the cat fancy, and in rescue, I loved her most for how she treated me as a child. She never talked down to me, was never dismissive of my opinions, and always treated me with respect.” That is who Peg was. She loved a lively intellectual discussion and she always wanted to hear others’ ideas, not just express her own. She cared deeply about the people in her life and about issues of social justice and she shared her time and knowledge accordingly. Her great nieces and nephews were especially blessed by her gift of time and her individual attention. She traveled to Alaska every summer and made sure to set aside five days, so that each of her young Alaskan relatives could have their own day with her and only her, doing whatever they chose. Activities varied from trips to Creamer’s Field or the Museum of the North to adventures with archery, an afternoon of ping pong or foosball, and, when the kids were younger, far far too many meals at McDonalds. After retirement from P&G in 2001, Peg put her computer skills to work volunteering with the AARP Tax-Aide Program. She began as a tax preparer and eventually became the supervising coordinator for district 19, training and managing volunteers at eight locations to provide free tax preparation for those who needed it most. She was patient and kind in the extreme with those who came in to get their taxes done. Peg was extremely active in the community at Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church. She was on the finance committee in her early years at Heritage, helping to develop a working budget and later served on the endowment committee as well. She participated in a number of small groups such as the women’s singing circle, the religious education programs both for youth and adults, and the pagan group. For many years she, along with Jim Crocker-Lakness, led the winter solstice celebration. She also ran an unofficial volunteer drive at Heritage, bringing many of her friends there into the Tax-Aide Program as greeters or tax preparers. One of Peg’s great loves was genealogy. She searched excitedly for clues to unlock the past and give her insight into her family history and relished the stories and items connected with it. Peg was particularly interested in her great grandfather August Forn, a brewmeister for Christian Moerlein, and her more distant relative Wilhelm Forn, a painter, whose hometown of Deisslingn, Germany in the Swabian Alps she visited some years ago. She has several paintings of his which will be sent back to his hometown to be hung in the town hall there. Peg’s interest in genealogy had begun, however, with a more personal mission. She hoped to find her birth son who she had given up for adoption in 1968. Her search eventually met with success and it was one of the joys of her life that she was able to connect with and develop a relationship with her son David and his family. She was so grateful that his family welcomed her as one of their own and that she had the opportunity to see for herself the love and the care with which they had raised her son. Peg was preceded in death by her husband Sam Feder and her sister Carol Fay Feist. She is survived by her son David Goldfarb and his wife Katie Schwarz of Houston, Texas, her nephew Theron Feist and his wife Michelle and children Elijah, Nia, and TJ of Baltimore, Maryland, and her niece Rebecca Kegley and her husband Carl and children Noah, Camden, Carson, Daniel, and Carol of Fairbanks, Alaska. A burial service will be held at Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary on Tuesday, August 2 at 10:00 am with a memorial service and reception to follow at Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church at 12 noon. Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/96000307462 Meeting ID: 960 0030 7462 Dial by your location 646 931 3860 US Contributions in memory of Peg can be made to the Ohio Alleycat Resource (OAR).

Tributes

Peg Fay-Feder

June 5, 1949 - July 29, 2022