Margaret / Libby

Margaret, by Sage Sohier, 1975.

Marni Sandweiss with Margaret, at Winthrop House graduation, 1975.

Margaret with her three Davids — builder, husband and brother — at the family's Revolutionary War farmhouse at Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.

Libby in her early twenties.

Teaching people the importance of insects by modeling everyone's favorite, at the Monarch Festival, 2022.

Libby’s Larchmont-Mamaroneck Pollinator Pathway team plants native gardens on public property, as part of Doug Tallamy's Homegrown National Park, 2024.

04-25-2025

Elizabeth “Libby” Poyet and Margaret Ray Reynolds talk about their shared commitment to the environment, stemming from parents who believed in all things natural.

One of the beauty of reunions is connecting with classmates you didn’t know well back in the day.

Elizabeth “Libby” Poyet and Margaret Reynolds had met as undergrads—they both enjoyed international folk dancing at MIT on Sundays (yes, that was a thing), but only maintained casual contact over the years, unaware of the many parallels in their lives.

Both married foreigners after graduation, speak fluid French, lived abroad (Margaret still does), and share a lifelong passion for improving the environment—among other accomplishments, Libby created the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Pollinator Pathway in New York to educate the public about pesticide use and Margaret became an architect specializing in eco-design work to promote greener buildings.

Yet it wasn’t until recently, spurred by events leading up to our 50th reunion, that they became good friends. Says Libby: “It was like a gradual realization of how much we have in common, even though we’re quite different people.”

They’re making up for lost time now, as is evident in this lively episode of PasstheMic75, in which they catch up on the intersecting threads of their lives, from Illinois and New York to Mali and Paris and many places in between.

It’s a testament to the ongoing dividends of reunions, providing opportunities to remember who we were and rediscover who we are.