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News & Features

Pittsburgher’s life has had many facets
archived from: 2009-11-23
by: Phil Taylor, Associate Editor

When describing Peggy Bullard some may not find it an easy task.

Mother, pastoral musician, choir director, University of Pittsburgh alum, volunteer, borough judge of elections, former federal emergency management employee, avid reader, voice teacher ... the list goes on.

A lifelong Pittsburgher, Bullard attended the former Holy Trinity School in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. But she has come a long way from the 5-year-old who hid from her first piano teacher, “Miss Georgia,” who today she fondly remembers.

“I am considered a ‘cradle Catholic.’ It never ceases to amaze me how in the year 2009 people are surprised to meet me — a black Catholic.”

An early graduate at 16 with honors from the former Fifth Avenue High School in the city’s Uptown section, she went on to study at the University of Pittsburgh, earning an undergraduate degree in public administration. She would also attend a master’s program at the institution in the same field.

Bullard, who always considered herself “an independent person,” would go on to a long affiliation and career with the federal government, retiring in 2000 as management assistant with the National Disaster Medical System.

The NDMS is a federally coordinated system that augments the nation’s medical response capability. Its overall purpose is to supplement an integrated national medical response to assist state and local authorities in dealing with major peacetime disasters. It also provides support to the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs medical systems in caring for casualties sent back to the U.S. from overseas conflicts.

She remembers her first deployment to San Juan, Puerto Rico, following the devastation from Hurricane Marilyn. She said being able to speak and read Spanish was essential in her duties. Other deployments over the years would include Rockville, Md. (Hurricane Bonnie); and Pensacola, Fla. (Hurricane Georges).

Bullard recalls the special uniform those with the NDMS would have to don as they coordinated efforts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government agencies.

She said in Florida, following Hurricane Georges, one of their tasks was to relieve the workers at area nursing homes so they could return home to their families. She said to complicate matters they were informed that alligators were loose from a nearby alligator farm.

Even though the conditions were sometimes harsh and severe where they were deployed, Bullard said she was proud to be part of the “silent warriors” who “never made a big deal” of their work.

While reporting to her hospital administrator for special leave to be deployed to distressed areas while based at DVA Hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, she was nurturing her other lifelong passion — music.

Since 1978, she has been involved in the music ministry at St. Benedict the Moor Parish in the city’s Hill District. Currently, she is the director of the parish Traditional Choir.

Bullard’s music participation consisted of singing with the Diocesan Choir, a volunteer resident musician with the DVA, singing before Pope John Paul II with the parish Gospel Choir and in Assisi, Italy, playing for the DVA National Orchestra, former voice teacher for the Jazz Workshop and choir director for Chatham College’s Gospel Choir, to mention only a few of her affiliations.

On one of the days she was being interviewed for this article she was to spend the day teaching piano to students at St. Benedict the Moor School.

In addition, the personal gifts that music has given her in her lifetime “enabled me to do other things and help with my children’s expenses.”

Married to her husband, Gordon, in 1956, who is retired from the 911th Tactical Airlift Group in Coraopolis, they had three children. She said there was a joy in sharing the “gift of music with my family.”

“Music has been a leading force in my life,” Bullard said.

“My daughter, Jeannine, played nine instruments. Brian and Stuart played as well. I wore out one piano, I played it until it never played anymore.”

While giving her granddaughter, Morgan, piano lessons, instead of chastising her for making a mistake she would say, “Well, I guess I’ll have to give you a hug.”

A proud lifetime member of the University of Pittsburgh Alumni Association, Bullard said she enjoyed her work as a volunteer for Pitt’s Kuntu Theater Repertory.

“I was a ticket taker and helped people to get seated. It was wonderful to see friends that I had not seen in years,” she said.

It was her involvement in community matters that led to her serving Braddock Hills as a judge of elections, a volunteer position she held for four years and was elected to twice.

She takes the responsibility very seriously and frowns when she reads write-in votes for popular Steelers and even on occasion “Daffy Duck.”

“There was a time when we (African-Americans) weren’t even allowed to vote.”

Bullard has three grandchildren, Jordan and Morgan, who live in the Penn Hills area, and Stuart Jr. of Sherman Oaks, Calif.

While giving her granddaughter, Morgan, piano lessons, instead of chastising her for making a mistake she would say, “Well, I guess I’ll have to give you a hug.” — Peggy Bullard

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