Margaret W. Altman

Margaret (Peggy) Altman May 25, 2025

Peggy Altman was born in Philadelphia on Sept. 26, 1936, to Walter and Anne Welham. Her father was a Navy physician who eventually retired as a Rear Admiral, allowing her the opportunity to travel and live in numerous places as she was growing up. She graduated from Punahou High School in Honolulu and Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, with a degree in elementary education.

She was teaching second grade at Annapolis Elementary School when she met Lt. Richard Altman, a Navy dentist stationed at the Naval Academy. Before long, they married and decided that a Navy career was an ideal one, and so they embarked on a life together, continuing the family tradition. It is said that the toughest job in the Navy is that of a Navy wife. She did it expertly.

Their Navy life was filled with adventure, travel, and accumulating a host of wonderful friends. Her favorite duty station was Naples, Italy, enabling them lots of travel throughout Europe, where they had been stationed just prior to moving to the Orlando area. They made their home in Maitland, FL, and when Dick retired from the Navy, they remained in their home while he went into a private practice of periodontics in Orlando. In 2018, they moved to Village on the Green in Longwood, FL, where they were living at the time of her death.

During her busy life, she had served as a Red Cross Volunteer at the Orlando Naval Hospital, as President of the Naval Hospital Officers’ Wives Club, as President of Orange County Dental Wives Auxiliary, and on the Board of the Maitland Library and a member of Council 101 of the Orlando Art Museum.

She was an excellent cook, famed for her cookies and an elegant hostess. She will mostly be remembered for her devotion to her husband, children, and grandchildren. She was predeceased by her parents and her sister, Anne, and is survived by her husband, son, Dr. David (Sherry), daughter, Joanne Tate (Dick), brothers Cdr. Walt (Pam) and Dr. Richard (Cheryl), four grandsons and one great-grandson, and many nieces and nephews.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Brede-Wilkins Scholarship Fund at the Central Florida Foundation, 800 S. Orange Avenue, Suite 1700, Orlando, FL 32803.

To share your memories of Peggy or to leave a message for her family online please visit the guestbook below.