Peggy Johnson elected president of Yeoman's Fund for the Arts

Peggy Johnson of Wonalancet, a prominent singer and choral director throughout the Lakes Region, has been elected president of the Yeomans Fund for the Arts. She succeeds founder Philip E. Simmons, who died July 27 after a 10-year battle with Lou Gehrigs disease.Johnson called the new assignment an awesome task to build on early Yeomans successes and carry out its mission of reaching young and old alike with artistic excellence and renewed creativity. Derek Marshall of Sandwich will continue as vice president; Sue Speers will serve as secretary; and Grace Dibiase remains treasurer. Other board members are Shirley E. Lyons and newcomers Boone Porter, Kathryn Field and Ann Rogers. Field, widow of Phil Simmons and an art teacher at the Holderness School, will be stepping in to help carry out the Yeomans mission of community service that meant so much to her husband. The other newcomers are a professor and an attorney. Ann Rogers, who lives in Wonalancet, taught Japanese language and literature at Washington & Lee University until her recent retirement. Boone Porter, a graduate of Yale with a law degree from New York University, practiced law in Kansas City, Mo., and moved to Sandwich just last year. Johnson takes over at an important time in Yeoman history. The group was founded in 2000 to honor the memory of the areas Music Man Robert Bates who brought the joy of music to this area for 30 years. He was particularly noted for annual performances of Gilbert & Sullivan shows hence the name Yeomans Fund." The founders intent was also to carry on the legacy and artistic influence of painter Bill Congdon and dancer Billie Bates. Under Simmons leadership the Yeomen not only sponsored several concerts and summer workshops, but also established a permanent endowment of more than $50,000 within the Lakes Region Charitable Foundation. Taking over for Simmons, Johnson, who also serves as Yeomans music director, is a native of Virginia who moved to New Hampshire in 1968 after studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has amassed an impressive list of music credentials, while also raising and often home-schooling six children. She worked with Walter Johnson, former head of the voice department at Westminster Choir College, Carol French Gellert of Laconia, Bob Swift of Plymouth State College, and Tom Nee, former director of the NH Music Festival. She also won a scholarship to the Aspen Music School, led church choirs and played the organ, sang several years with the Choral Art Society of Portland, Maine and most recently was a leader with Village Harmony, a traveling youth choir. Helping start the Yeoman's board was a natural, Johnson said. I wanted everybody in the area to continue to have the kind of fun we had when Bob was around. The unexpected part was helping create an institution. I wanted to try to fill the gap left in our community when somebody who had made music so possible in my life was no longer there.Johnson confessed she does not like going to meetings. But, as a member of the new Yeomans Board, she said that whenever she felt like running off into the woods, she would look at Phil Simmons rising above ALS," and say to herself Well, if he can do it, I can do it. And. now, she said, "I have the awesome task of helping the board keep this institution growing and going because it is simply a wonderful idea, with great goals, projects, support, and, even so soon, a track record of doing just what Bob did, just what Phil did 'reaching a broad range of area residents across the generations, exposing them to artistic excellence, involving them in the creative process, and leading them to lives of greater creativity, self-expression and joy' (from the Yeoman's Fund mission statement)."