Peggy S. Charren, 86

DEDHAM, MASS. – Peggy Sundelle (Walzer) Charren, of Dedham, passed away Jan. 22. She was born March 9, in New York City, to Maxwell and Ruth Walzer.

She graduated from New York’s Hunter College High School, and Connecticut College, where she received her B.A. in English. Her first job was as head of the film department at WPIX-TV in New York City.

She started several businesses; an art gallery, Quality Book Fairs that organized children’s book fairs in schools in New England. In the 1960s, Peggy became a member of the Creative Arts Council of Newton, Mass., and worked to incorporate artists of all kinds into programs for city schools.

 While home, caring for her children, Peggy found herself disturbed by the “wall-to-wall monster cartoons” on television for children. She invited friends with similar concerns to meetings in her home. Out of these meetings, Action for Children’s Television (ACT), a national child advocacy organization, was formed. She went on to lead ACT for more than 25 years, ACT’s culminating success was the passing of the Children’s Television Act of 1990 into law.

In 1992 she dissolved ACT and donated ACT’s materials and papers to the Gutman Library at Harvard University.

She was named a visiting scholar at Harvard and continued to lobby, testify and serve on Presidential commissions and national committees until her retirement in 2005.  She held many academic honors and honorary degrees. She received numerous awards for her work, including a Peabody Award and a Trustee’s Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1995, she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.

She is survived by her husband, Stanley, of Dedham, her daughter Deborah Charren and her husband Timothy Diehl of Northampton, her daughter (Claudia) Sandi Moquin and her husband Kyle Moquin of Feeding Hills, her sister and brother-in-law Barbara and Rolf Korstvedt of Redondo Beach, Calif., her brother-in-law Burton Charren of Providence, her grandchildren, Hannah and Zachary Charren-Diehl, Corey and Veronica Moquin and Matthew and Andrew Diehl and seven great-grandchildren. 

The family is grateful to the staff at NewBridge on the Charles and Always Here Home Care for their caretaking, to Katelyn McNeil for her excellent nursing support, to Hebrew Senior Life Hospice workers for their care, and to Emily Saltz for her expert guidance during Peggy’s journey through vascular dementia.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made  to WGBH-TV in Cambridge or the Clinton Global Initiative/Clinton Foundation at www.clintonfoundation.org.