The Counting House Museum was packed for the Old Berwick Historical Society Annual Meeting to honor volunteer archivist and former longtime South Berwick resident Wendy Pirsig.
The evening centered around Pirsig’s 30 years of service to the organization, with a plaque unveiled that dedicated the new research area in her name.
Pirsig was the driving force for cataloging local materials that had been collected and stored in unorganized boxes over the decades. Items are now searchable online through the organization’s website.
The historical society, known as OBHS, is refocusing their mission to make the research collection more appealing and available to the community.
Several speakers talked about Pirsig’s many contributions as board president, project manager and fundraiser, with several mentioning that one of her skills was persuading other people to volunteer. Two of her grandchildren, impressed by the accolades, spoke of their pride in their grandmother’s impact on the community of South Berwick.
Pirsig rose and with characteristic liveliness and ease told the story of cataloging materials in first generation MacIntosh data base software with no prior experience.
The evening concluded with society vice president Peter Michaud shooing the crowd outside and taking a group photo in front of the Counting House.
“This is history, too,” he said.
