Description
- Abstract:
- Peggy "PJ" McKearney Hamel remembers choosing to apply to Pembroke because they were the first college in the country to have a women's ice hockey team, the Pembroke Pandas. By the time she arrived for her first semester, Pembroke and Brown had merged, and she was a member of the first class of Brown women students. She remarks on the lively social life, the quality of bands who played Spring Weekend and the amount of drugs and alcohol on campus in the early '70s. PJ comments on the complete lack of financial support for women's athletics, sleeping in unheated classrooms on road trips and practicing with the Junior Varsity men's ice hockey equipment. Having known from age 5 that she wanted to be a writer, PJ explored photography, worked on the yearbook for three years and wrote for the Brown Daily Herald. Her earliest jobs out of college were in newspapers, leading to Maine Press awards, then business writing for King Arthur Flour, where she has been named Catalog Copywriter of the Year and won a 2004 James Beard Award as the main contributor to The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.
- Notes:
- Class year: 1975
- Biographical note: PJ Hamel (birth name Peggy McKearney) was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She grew up mostly in Connecticut, and then in Massachusetts. Her dad was a school teacher, and her mom was a stay-at-home mom before becoming a secretary and then going back to school to earn a Master's and become a school librarian. Attending high school in Massachusetts, PJ fell in love with the Boston Bruins and decided to attend Pembroke because she could play ice hockey on the first college women's ice hockey team in the country. During her time at Brown, PJ started every single game for four years straight as the goalie. Attending Brown in 1971, she was part of the first class of Brown women after the Pembroke/Brown merger. PJ studied Anthropology and English at Brown, also becoming involved with the Liber Brunensis yearbook committee, the concert band, field hockey, lacrosse, and the Brown Daily Herald in addition to her four years of ice hockey. She describes Brown as a "big, fun romp in athletics and photography and writing." Upon her graduation in 1976, she pursued a career in photography and writing, which she calls "an inevitable path." She held positions in multiple local newspapers, including the Scituate Mirror and The Camden Herald. When she was 47, PJ was diagnosed with breast cancer. She says: "I learned what was truly important, and since then have focused on being a good and supportive family member, friend, and work colleague. I fell off the fast track" and embraced Reiki, meditation, and simply being the best person I can be. I still work a 50-60 hour week - I just do it more mindfully!" PJ now volunteers at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in New Hampshire, where she was treated for cancer, expressing a desire to give back to the place that saved her life. She also volunteers at Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts, teaching visitors about baking. PJ is the senior digital content editor at King Arthur Flour in Vermont, as well as the breast cancer community manager of HealthCentral.com. She has published a cookbook, "The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion," which received the James Beard Awards North American Cookbook of the Year in 2004. Her website has also earned the Website of the Year award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals Digital Media Awards. PJ has one son and lives in Massachusetts.
Citation
"Peggy McKearney, class of 1975"
(2016).
Pembroke Center Oral History Collection.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:712538/
Relations
Has Parts:
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Peggy McKearney, class of 1975 Part 1
- Type: Audio
- Order: 1
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Peggy McKearney, class of 1975 Part 1
- Type: Stream
- Order: 1
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Peggy McKearney, class of 1975 Part 2
- Type: Audio
- Order: 2
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Peggy McKearney, class of 1975 Part 2
- Type: Stream
- Order: 2
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Peggy McKearney, class of 1975
- Type: Pdf
- Order: 3
Collection:
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Pembroke Center Oral History Collection
This collection contains oral history interviews with alumnae of Brown University, which admitted its first women students in 1891. The Women's College at Brown was renamed Pembroke College in 1928, and in 1971, Pembroke College merged with the Men's College …...