Meet Our Members ~ Peggy and Bob MacArthur of Birch Corner Associates

What are your names?
Peggy and Bob MacArthur, Birch Corner Associates ​

Peggy MacArthur, photo by Kim Beer

Bob MacArthur, photo by Kim Beer

How did you get to Sandwich?
After two decades in the Midwest, we returned to New Hampshire in 2004.  Having spent fourteen years raising our family in Hanover and exploring many of the state’s peaks, trails and tributaries during our days with Outward Bound, we were happy to return to the land that is home to our spirits.  

While in St. Louis Bob served as president and CEO of the American Youth Foundation, a national youth development organization. Camp Merrowvista in Tuftonboro is one of AYF’s program centers, and over the years Bob made many trips east to oversee the expanding program and renovations to its facilities. It was during those trips that friends introduced us to Sandwich.

Why the name of your business?
Exploring the land while our home was being built, we were drawn to one corner formed by the intersection of two rock walls.  We found the woods contain a preponderance of birch trees.  Many are beyond mature, bearing the wrinkled bark of decades and the scars of the 1998 ice storm. Nearby, younger birches grow strong and supple with the skin of youth.  An author we read at the time opined that the symbolic quality of birch trees includes “cleansing of the past, new beginnings and vision quests.”  True or not, the attributes resonated, and we embraced the name as emblematic of our work in this chapter of life. ​

Generations of birches in a special corner of the woods. Photo by Bob MacArthur

Tell us about your business.
Birch Corner is a coaching practice that helps clients identify, claim and amplify their purpose in life. We work with nonprofit leaders and boards, small business owners and individuals who are seeking greater fulfillment in life or have momentarily lost their direction and/or traction.  

Bob has worked with several organizations facilitating the creation of their strategic plans and conducting developmental sessions with senior leadership teams and boards.  Regional examples include Geneva Point Center, Green Mountain Conservation Group, Project Adventure, Kimball Union Academy, the NH and VT chapters of The Nature Conservancy, Squam Lakes Conservation Society, Proctor Academy, and the Sandwich Children’s Center.

In 2008 we helped launch the Touched By A Horse coaching certification program (www.touchedbyahorse.com) and have been principal coaches, facilitators and supervisors ever since. TBAH is a two year course for students who are studying and practicing to apply gestalt principles and methods in partnering with horses to engage clients. Peggy continues to mentor the coaches of these programs and makes several trips to Colorado each year for 3-5 day experiential workshops involving the students and the horses.  Several graduates of the program continue to seek Peggy’s coaching.

Scooter clears the throat chakra to help his client Bob reclaim his voice.
Photo by Mado Reid

What happened to your business this last Covid year?
Our work with individuals and some organizations continued virtually and was pretty much uninterrupted.  Peggy and her colleagues at Touched By A Horse maintained weekly classes. In-person workshops were postponed and have subsequently resumed in the spring of this year.  

What got you started in this profession?
Earlier personal and professional experiences shaped the building blocks for our current work.  Each of us experienced the disciplines, successes and defeats of competitive athletics - Peggy as a nationally ranked ice dancer and Bob as a varsity athlete in college.  

Each of our professional lives has been characterized by a sense of vocation to support others in developing their potential and their emotional and spiritual health.  Peggy spent a decade in human resources at Energizer’s world headquarters in St. Louis. In addition to raising our family while at Energizer, she earned her MSW degree at Washington University and acquired her LICSW license for both Missouri and New Hampshire.  Her family therapy practice in Moultonborough and Wolfeboro anchored Birch Corner Associates, as we launched our coaching business.

Peggy in 2011. Photo by Chris Jernstedt

After attending seminary, Bob spent two years as Episcopal chaplain at Dartmouth. He recognized that his vocation was not to parish ministry but a broader calling to build community and help others attain their goals. In addition to chaplaincy roles, Bob’s formal leadership experience includes directing the Dartmouth Outward Bound Center for twelve years and for nineteen years serving as President and CEO of the American Youth Foundation.  

On a clear day you can see forever… the view from Mt. Israel. Photo by Sandy McGinnes

Goals for the future?
As long as we are able, we plan to continue offering our services to those who benefit, while enjoying the blessings of life in this community. We also keep in mind our ties to the land, inspired by Robert Frost’s wisdom related to birches and aging.

…So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over…

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

                ~Robert Frost


Peggy and Bob MacArthur
Birch Corner Associates
PO Box 269, Ctr. Sandwich
284-7783, bob@birchcorner.com
birchcorner.com