Lawrence resident is honored for volunteerism

Margaret Carpenter, of Lawrence, a longtime supporter of and volunteer for a number of organizations in the metropolitan area, will be honored by the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation at its annual benefit gala in Manhattan on April 14.

Carpenter has been a board member of the foundation, which provides mentorship, career guidance, artistic development and performance opportunities for young pianists, for more than 40 years, and is currently the board chair.

Carpenter, 88, was born Margaret Owen in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1934. Her family moved to Lawrence when she was 7.

She attended Lawrence Country Day School, now Lawrence Woodmere Academy. She and her first husband, Henrik Van Rensselaer, had four children, and after they divorced, she inherited three more children when she married her second husband, Tim Carpenter. Tim died in 2011.

Carpenter is known for being an active volunteer, and as a member of Episcopal Health Services, she assists the medical group at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway.

She was volunteering for the hospital 45 years ago when she took her father there for treatment of his emphysema. Especially interested in women’s health, she wanted to help out at the facility, she said, because it was an important place for her family and many others in the Five Towns, and she got involved in raising money for it.

“Margaret is very giving, and it has been a great privilege and an honor to be able to work with (her) all these years,” Melvin Stecher, a renowned pianist and a cofounder of the foundation, said. “A great supporter, a great friend, and a great humanitarian.”

After playing an instrumental role in Episcopal Health Service’s development for more than 40 years. Carpenter was honored in 2022 with the opening of the Margaret Carpenter Women’s Health Center at the St. John’s Medical Group in Rockaway Park.

“That was a humbling experience,” Carpenter recalled. “I haven’t done much. What I probably have done is shown up longer than anybody else, and seeing the kind of care that St. John’s is now delivering is remarkable.”

Stecher and Norman Horowitz, the executive directors of the foundation, are an internationally known piano duet who performed around the world for 50 years. In 1960, they founded the Stecher and Horowitz School of the Arts, in Cedarhurst, which taught Long Island students of all ages and educational backgrounds and was highly regarded as a center of creativity.

The school had 30 teachers, and worked more than 15,000 students over the years. It became a nonprofit in 1975, and after its transformation into a foundation, the school closed in 1999. The foundation promotes young pianists through its New York International Piano Competition and Young Artists Series, and Stecher and Horowitz were recently honored with the Music Teachers National Association’s Achievement Award.

Although Carpenter said she was not the most talented pianist, she was fascinated with the duo when she was young, and first visited the school in 1970. She was impressed that students of all ages were taught a range of instruments, and when the school became a foundation, she attended all of its performances and decided to volunteer.

“I was so intrigued by the work that they did, I thought I needed to volunteer,” Carpenter said. “Once I heard them play, I just was so thrilled. I volunteered to help them in any way possible.”

Horowitz commended Carpenter’s spirit and drive to help, saying that she is as vital to the foundation now as she was years ago.

“She always had something wise to offer,” Horowitz said. “She was a great leader when she was involved in the Episcopal Church. She’s a great leader there with St. John’s Hospital. Whatever she touches, she gives everything she has. There is only one Margaret Carpenter.”

Carpenter says she believes that charitable work was what she was meant to do. “I feel grateful to have been able to help, and if I did it well, I’m grateful for that,” she said. “I think my job is to try to help.”

The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation benefit gala will take place at the Lotos Club, at 5 E. 66th St. in Manhattan, on April 14. There will be a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m., and a performance by Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko, winner of last year’s New York International Piano Competition. Dinner is at 8:15 p.m. For tickets and information, contact info@stecherandhorowitz.org.