Peggy Downes Baskin

Founder, The Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation

1930 – 2023

Peggy Downes Baskin was born in Seattle, Washington in 1930. She attended Vassar College where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1952. Later in life, Peggy expanded her higher education and attended the Claremont Graduate School of Public Policy, where she received a Ph.D in 1983. Later, she was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of California at Berkeley. Peggy was a professor of political science, with specialization in the fields of “The Presidency”, “Elections” and “Presidential Management Styles” for eighteen years at Santa Clara University. She also spent five years at the University of California at Santa Cruz as a senior lecturer on Women and Politics and Women in Power.

Peggy wrote numerous journal articles on women and politics and is also credited with authoring the following: The New Older Woman, 1995, co-author; Beyond Superwoman, 2004, co-author; The Quiet Eye – Listening to Images, 2006, author; The Wandering Spirit – Through the Lens of Time, 2010, author. In addition to the Peggy & Jack Baskin Foundation, Peggy co-founded several other philanthropic organizations, including: Women’s Educational Success at Cabrillo College (2003), Women’s Leadership Forum at Cal State Monterey Bay (2003), Women Helping Women at Monterey Peninsula College (2003), The Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Monterey County.

Peggy Downes Baskin passed away on December 11th, 2023, surrounded by family. Peggy was a lifelong advocate for women’s rights and educational equity, a widely respected professor of political science, and a longtime philanthropist. Peggy used her leadership to lift up women and girls, not only in her own life, but across all the communities she called home. The Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation continues to carry on her legacy through our work and our mission of promoting racial and gender equity.