Virginia C. Gamage,
Noted Marblehead historian

Virginia C. Gamage died peacefully Sunday morning at her home in Marblehead, where she was well known as a community activist dedicated to historic preservation. She was 93.

She was born in Philadelphia, PA., the daughter of the late Katherine (Howard) Bastian and Alfred J. Clegg, but lived in Marblehead for the past 56 years.

Shortly after moving with her family from Gloucester to Marblehead, Mrs. Gamage became the first and organizing president of the Boston Museum of Science Service League, which initiated the Museum Shop, guided tours and school visits programs at the request of the late then-museum president Bradford Washburn, before also being elected a trustee.

Subsequently, she took on various leadership roles at her alma mater, Smith College in Northampton, MA., where she was her class and club president, served on the national Alumnae Fund Committee, and then vice president and president of the Smith College Alumnae Association and its Board of Trustees.

Mrs. Gamage earlier had been with the Remington-Rand Corp., the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and an account executive with the McCann-Erickson Advertising Agency in Hollywood and Los Angeles, CA. Later she also served as associate editor of Nautica magazine and was a trustee of the Salem Five Cent Savings Bank, and was past president of the Marblehead Neck Association, the Old Marblehead Improvement Association and the Marblehead Historical Society.

In 1972 after years of archive research and anecdotal interviews, she co-authored Marblehead: The Spirit of '76 Lives Here with friend and writer Priscilla S. Lord, also of Marblehead. Published by the Chilton Book Co. of Philadelphia, the book was a definitive history of the town since 1629 with three printings. Mrs. Gamage also authored seven editions of a town walking tour titled, The Lure of Marblehead.

In 1974 Mrs. Gamage was appointed by then-Gov. Francis Sargent to the Mass. Bicentennial Commission planning statewide activities and also helped produce the WGBH Town Meeting of the Future in 1976. For three years before the bicentennial year – and after much national political wrangling – her extensive research convinced U.S. Post Office authorities in Washington to honor the national commemorative Bicentennial Stamp by using Marblehead's heroic and original Spirit of '76 painting as its face. The controversy landed the town and Mrs. Gamage on the front page of the New Year's day edition of The New York Times. Ever protective of the town's heritage, she liked to tell the story of the Boston postal district official wanting to remove The Spirit of '76 painting from Abbot Hall as background for presentation ceremonies there, to which she replied, "I'll be standing on Washington Street, waiting with a musket!"

In 1979, Marblehead selectmen appointed Mrs. Gamage chairman of the town's 350th anniversary committee to celebrate the town's founding. She also was instrumental in placing Abbot Hall, Fort Sewall, the Hooper Mansion and the Old Town House on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as Marblehead's large old-town historic district on the National Register of Historic Districts.

Always interested in education, Mrs. Gamage helped design a curriculum unit for local public schools on Marblehead history as well as a children's coloring book.
One of her most proud moments was in 2004 when she unwittingly was invited to a weekly selectmen's meeting and honored as the town's first historian emeritus.

Mrs. Gamage is survived by daughters Judy G. Kelly of Needham, MA and her husband, Richard; Kathryn G. Green of Centerville, MA and her husband, Jonathan, and Virginia A. Gamage of Denver, CO; a son, Peter H. Gamage and his wife, Lindsay, of Manchester, MA and two grandchildren Todd Johnston and Brittany Johnston.

Her Visiting hours will be private, however friends are invited to attend funeral services at Star of the Sea Church, Atlantic Ave., Marblehead on Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 11 a.m. Burial services will follow at Waterside Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of the North Shore, 10 Elm St., Danvers, MA 01923 or the Scholarship Fund of Smith College, 33 Elm St., Northampton, MA. 01063. Arrangements are through the Murphy Funeral Home, 85 Federal St., Salem and www.MurphyFuneralHome.com.