Marjorie Louise Dolan

With her flaming red hair, distinctive Rhode Island accent, hearty laugh and quirky personality, Marjorie Louise “Peg” Dolan, who died on February 15,2026 at the age of 83, was a striking presence who made a memorable mark on her family, friends and colleagues. Known to her Texas niece and nephew as “Aunt Peg-Leg” and her East Coast nieces and nephews as “Aunt Peggy” (“aunt”, not “ant,” as she was not a bug, thank you very much), she was a beloved fixture in their lives. Quick to exclaim “holy smokes” or nonsensical strings of sounds like “eeegadzooks” when surprised or dismayed, there was never a dull moment when Aunt Peg was in the house. Devoted to her extended family – parents, siblings and all her nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews – she rarely missed an important milestone or the chance to offer a helping hand. Defying the personal and professional norms of the day, Peg lived a full, productive and caring life on her own terms. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 6, 1942, she arrived in a country at war, with her father, John Robert Dolan, away in the South Pacific serving as a Lt. Colonel in the army in the Philippines. She, her mother, Marjorie Louise Dolan, Sr.,and her older brother and sister, John Robert “Bob” Dolan, Jr. and Joan Dolan Rawlins, welcomed her father safely back home from the war in 1945. John Dolan became a banker and moved the family to Cranston, Rhode Island, and New London and Westport, Connecticut during the 1950s, where Peg spent a happy childhood. At their summer home in Jamestown, Rhode Island, Peg and her family enjoyed “lobsta” cookouts, frigid swims, ferry rides, movies at the local theatre, and socializing with her dear cousin, Janet Cotton Gray, and Janet’s parents, her Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Johnny, who Peg adored. After graduating from high school in 1960, Peg set off to a small women’s college, Russell Sage. Finding it not to her liking (a round Peg in a square hole), she left and took a gap year in Massachusetts, sharing an apartment with her sister in Cambridge, working at a bank in Boston, and reveling in her new found freedom. She then left to finish college at the University of Connecticut, where she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1965. Following a short stint working in the Boston area and living in her sister’s family’s guest house in Scituate, where her toddler-age niece and nephew loved riding in the boot of her Volkswagen bug before carseats were a thing, Peg surprised everyone by departing for distant California, (where she did not know a soul) after a vacation to that state where she was charmed by the City by the Bay – a bold step for a young single woman in those days. Embarking soon thereafter on a life-long career in the burgeoning field of computer science, Peg helped to blaze a path for the women who followed in this male-dominated industry. Moving to San Antonio, Texas, in the 1970s, and later to Dallas (where her sister’s family lived), she worked for many years as a senior computer software trainer at the now defunct Datapoint Corporation, the inventor of local area networking (LANs), sharing her expertise with generations of computer science professionals as the field grew and grew – and computers shrank in size from entire rooms to laptops. Mid-career, she decided it was time for a change and pursued a Master’s degree in library science in New Jersey. After briefly working as a librarian in Pennsylvania, she returned to the more lucrative and exciting field of computer science, retiring in the early 2000s back in Texas – first in Bayou Vista and then in Lake Conroe. In retirement, Peg was able to further indulge her love of reading and exploring new places, the latter usually with her sister. At heart, she was a wanderer, living in nine states over the course of her life – from Rhode Island to California to Florida to Texas – and traveling to farflung places, such as Hawaii and Australia, and taking cruises to Bermuda, Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, and Alaska.. Peg fell in love with Australia during two work trips, seriously considering moving there permanently and convincing her sister that it was a paradise not to be missed. When her traveling days were done, Peg left Texas and returned to Rhode Island, where her cousin, Janet, and her East Coast nieces and nephews welcomed her home and kept an eye on her. But no tribute to Peg would be complete without noting her deep love of cats, whose independent spirit and quiet companionship suited her perfectly. She was a quintessential cat lady, with a coterie of adored feline friends who accompanied her throughout life’s journey. Among them there was Sasha, the portly sassy queen, Nicholas, or “Pickle”, the elusive orange tabby, George, the sweet-natured street-embattled rescue, Bethany, the aloof princess, and her last kitty, Cali, a beautiful petite Calico who is now a happy member of her nephew’s household. Peg’s small set of treasured possessions included a well-loved copy of a poem, “A Tribute to Cats.” In her final years, Peg moved to the retirement community in Newberg, Oregon where her sister and best friend resided. She never fully embraced the West Coast but held an abiding love for Jamestown, which will serve as her eternal resting place. Peg was a kind and generous person who left this world better than she found it “for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs” (George Eliot, 1871). Donations in Peg’s memory can be made to her preferred charity, St. Jude’s Hospital. A private celebration of life will be held for her family.

Marjorie Louise Dolan

June 6, 1942 - February 15, 2026