The creation of a scholarship to help young women interested in politics and government to further their education is
certainly an apt honor for a woman - Margaret "Peg" Curtin - who devoted much of her adult life to public service.

During 14 years on the New London City Council, including two, one-year stints as mayor, Ms. Curtin was the voice of the blue-collar worker and those struggling to deal with life's hard knocks. She was always urging people to get involved in politics as a way of assuring that their views might help shape public policy in the city.

One woman who took that advice was Gail Schwenker-Mayer, who credits Ms. Curtin for her own involvement in the city's political discourse over the years. Ms. Schwenker-Mayer led a group of friends and admirers who have raised $2,500 so far to develop a Curtin scholarship.

Ms. Curtin served two terms on the City Council in the 1970s and six consecutive terms over the past decade before failing to win re-election in November.

We don't anticipate that Ms. Curtin, 75, will now disappear from the public realm. She is not the retiring type. Her work in state government included serving as an aide in the Secretary of the State's office, the Office of Policy and Management and the human services department at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

After retiring from state government in 1996, Ms. Curtin took on a new job - a taxi driver in her home city of New London.

Citizens can expect Ms. Curtin to follow her own advice. She will speak out when an issue is important to her. She told The Day that the community needs to do more to help students at risk of not obtaining their high school diplomas. Perhaps, she said, there may be a run for the New London Board of Education in her future.

That ability to look forward is certainly the Peg Curtin we have come to know.