Penelope (Penny) Curtiss Pease died peacefully at home in Harthaven on August 1. She was 98.

She was born on December 16, 1923 in New Britain, Conn., the fifth of the five children of Mary Curtiss Pease and Herbert Hoyt Pease. She attended Mooreland Hill School in Kensington, Conn., The White Mountain School in New Hampshire and, during the last years of World War II, she attended the Ethel Walker School to be closer to home.

Penny married Marshall (Marsh) Adams Pease in New Britain on Sept. 11, 1948. They enjoyed a 40-year long marriage. Marsh died in 1988 at age 69.

She raised four children while Marsh was constantly on the road, selling hardware for Stanley Works. She was very active in community affairs. She volunteered for numerous local organizations, was very active in local politics and was a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Church of Christ Congregational in New Britain for many years. Penny and Marsh led an active social life with numerous close friends.

Penny was a determined, feisty and pragmatic child of the Great Depression. Ever frugal, she saved rubber bands and tin foil, made clothes for family members, stained the house herself and mowed the back field. She made clothes for family members, loved to knit amazing sweaters and sewed Halloween costumes.

She was an avid skier, hiker, camper and sailor. In her teens she often climbed snowy mountains in New Hampshire with her skis on her shoulder to enjoy Tuckerman Ravine and Cannon mountain. She loved nature and all that it offered. Bird and moon watching were some of her favorite pastimes. She was an accomplished gardener. She loved being on or in the water, most often in Harthaven and Chilmark.

Penny was a supportive and encouraging spirit who always saw the best in people and brought out the best in her children. She was a generous mother to “strays,” always offering a meal or bed. She was fiercely independent and opinionated but never had an unkind word. At Christmastime she and Marsh took the kids caroling in the neighborhood even if she could never carry a tune.

In the 1980s, after the children were well launched, she managed the books at Marsh’s company, Pease Industrial Products. After Marsh died she managed the company for a short time until she retired.

She left Kensington in 2001 and moved to the Carleton-Willard retirement community in Bedford to be closer to her children. In 2020 she moved to her summer home in Harthaven to be in the company and care of her three children, their dogs and the local bird population.

Penny is survived by three children, Peter A. Pease and his spouse Susan, Douglas M. Pease and his spouse Richie, and Mary (Polly) S. Pease and her spouse Craig. She also leaves nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

She was predeceased by her husband and her son Malcolm C. Pease. She was interred alongisde them at Maple Cemetery in Berlin, Conn.

A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 2 p.m. A reception for attendees will follow at Harthaven.

Memorial donations can be made to the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury, First Parish in Lincoln, White Mountain School, or to Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard.

To share a memory or offer condolences, visit the website of Chapman Funeral Home at chapmanfuneral.com.