Meet the 102-year-old Oregonian woman who has been instructing swimming lessons for more than 50 years and has no intention of slowing down any time soon!

Peggy Konzack is well-known in Roseburg for having taught multiple generations of infants at the YMCA of Douglas County how to swim. She had not anticipated her life going in this direction.

According to Marisa Fink, executive director of the Oregon Alliance of YMCAs, the stay-at-home mother of two was initially pursuing a career in hairstyling when she was approached about the position.

Peggy hasn’t looked back decades later, and she says she will continue to give these seminars “for as long as I can.”

She quips, “I used to say that I’d keep teaching and swimming until they could roll me in a wheelchair and drop me in the sea.

According to Fink, Peggy was born on June 5, 1921, in Los Angeles. When the then-teens were attending a 7th Day Adventist Youth camp, she later relocated to Butte, Montana, where she eventually married her husband.

The couple relocated to Roseburg in 1945, where Fink claims they were “very active” members of their church. Before Peggy’s husband passed away at 100 years old in 2021, they had been married for 79 years.

Nevertheless, Peggy stayed dedicated to the neighborhood even after her husband passed away. Regularly swimming at the YMCA, Peggy later enrolled with a friend in parent-child swim lessons.

Peggy learned that the instructor was leaving the region and needed a replacement after approximately a month. Peggy stepped forward to teach the class as a result, and she has done so ever since.

Peggy also lacked a lot of formal experience. Peggy, who was 46 at the time, was told by a former aquatic director that she was “too old” for the training.

According to Steven Stanfield, CEO of the YMCA of Douglas County, Peggy wasn’t deterred and went ahead and obtained a teaching certificate in Sutherlin on her own initiative.

Peggy continues to instruct classes at the same YMCA today. She claims that she “loves to help” moms and “works with their babies.”

She exclaims, “It makes me happy.” I’m happy to work with children and infants, and I like my interactions with the parents.

Her favorite aspect of her profession is the relationships she has formed throughout the course of her employment. She continues, “the parents, the babies, the lifeguards who are watching, and all of the people that I meet on a daily basis.”

There are many reasons why Peggy believes she has remained fit and healthy — and staying active is one of them.

She typically works Mondays and Wednesdays, but comes back to the YMCA on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays to swim.

While getting rest is important, Peggy says that she wouldn’t change anything about her active lifestyle. Above all, she doesn’t want to “stay home and do nothing” all day.

“At this age I can be very lazy, and this way I come over and do my swimming or teaching and I go home, and I feel good and I’m ready for the rest of the day,” she says. “It keeps me going.”