Health forces Rodenberger to retire

Retiring is not something you’d expect to find on the to-do list of long-time realtor Peggy Rodenberger.

But, after 33 years as the Owner/Broker of Orcas Island Realty, Peggy will, in fact, be retiring at the end of this month. The business will, however, remain open until January or February 2003, 50 years after it was started by Jim Golithon, to allow for the completion of existing transactions. Orcas Island Realty’s Steve Hopkins will step in as the designated Broker in the interim. Gary Harper, who has been with Orcas Island Realty since 1986, will be moving to the Windermere office.

Peggy’s decision to retire at this time is motivated by health considerations. Peggy had had a surface melanoma removed nine years ago and, based upon visual exams, was doing fine. However, when being examined after a gall bladder attack last Christmas, the doctors found that the cancer had recurred aggressively but internally.

The treatment that Peggy has been undergoing since February of this year, largely naturopathic, and the Gamma Knife pinpoint surgery that was performed, have left her tired. A recent episode has also affected her balance and her ability to walk with confidence without carrying a cane. “ My illness overshadows everything right now,” is how Peggy Rodenberger describes her current situation.

Peggy does admit that even before she became ill she had occasionally thought about retirement, not because she no longer enjoyed getting to know new people and helping them find homes, but because the special camaraderie that once existed between realtors, even competing ones, was disappearing. “ We used to have all sorts of parties together. It was really friendly and there was mutual respect. I’m a firm believer that people in the same business should show each other respect. There are so many new people, we don’t really know each other anymore.”

The death of her husband Maurice in 1994 after a long bout with cancer and her daughter Margie’s diagnosis of cancer in 1996 also made business much less important to her. “ I had so many other things on my mind,” she says.“

There is one change in the real estate business that Peggy is delighted with and that is that today’s buyers are so much more educated about real estate than they once were. “ Customers know what to ask now and they understand so much more from the outset.”

Peggy is, in general, quite positive about change. When asked about the myriad changes that she’s inevitably seen on Orcas over the years she said, “ Changes tend to happen slowly enough not to be too startling and, let’s face it, some really are for the better.”

Given that the term old-islander could have been coined for Peggy Rodenberger, her cheery acceptance of changes on the island might surprise some people.

Her great-grandfather, Henry O’Neill, homesteaded in the Eastsound area in the 1860s. Her father, Alfred O’Neill, was born on Lover’s Lane in Eastsound but subsequently grew up and raised his family in Olga, where Peggy has lived her whole life, first in the house currently owned by Jane Barfoot and then, for the last 53 years, right across the street at her current residence.

After she married Maurice Rodenberger, also a long-term islander, she handled the accounting for his businesses, including Crescent Service, while raising their four daughters and one son. Three of her five children are, of course, well-known locals Margie Rodenberger, Barbara Griffin and Jeff Rodenberger.

As proud as Peggy is of her family and island heritage, she seems equally proud of being a pioneering businesswoman on Orcas Island. Peggy got her real estate license in 1969 and became a Broker in 1970. When she bought Orcas Island Realty in 1975, she became one of only two women who owned real estate companies on the island, Cherie Lindholm being the other, or actually, as she says with a laugh “ any other kind of business for that matter.”

She does not remember having any problems being one of the few women in the business community because she says, “ I never paid attention to any of that. I just did what I did.”

Peggy is also extremely proud of the kind of company she has run for the last 33 years. She says that if she had to describe what Orcas Island Realty stood for in one word, that word would be integrity.

Peggy says, with her trademark smile, that her most immediate plans are “learning how to walk” and getting new windows for her house. Longer-range plans include gardening and volunteer work.

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