Sarah Delores Cousin Banks

1940 - 2018
Dr. Sarah Delores Cousin Banks, of Columbia, Maryland and Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, transitioned from earth on Saturday, February 10, 2018 at her home in Columbia, MD with her daughter, niece, nephew and close friend present. She was 77.

Sarah was born on June 5, 1940 in Baltimore, MD. She graduated from Western High School for Girls, where she was one of three African American students to desegregate the school. She went on to Morgan State University, where she graduated in June of 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. She was inducted into Promethean Kappa Tau Honor Society. After graduation Sarah worked as a mathematics teacher at Booker T. Washington Junior High School from 1962-1968 and Harlem Park Middle School from 1968-1969.

She completed her Master's degree in Mathematics at Morgan State College in June 1969 and was married to Kenneth Banks a few days after graduation. Sarah spent the next fifteen years working as a mathematics teacher and administrator at Rutgers University in Camden New Jersey and as a curriculum specialist and director at the New Jersey State Department of Education.

Sarah earned her doctorate from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ in May of 1984. In 1985, Dr. Sarah Banks began an eighteen-year career at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she served as Director of the Special Recruitment and Admissions Program, Acting Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Vice President for Administration at the Health Science Campus, and Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

After a brief retirement, she returned to work in October 2003 at the Community College of Philadelphia as the acting Admissions Director. In May of 2005, she relocated back to Maryland where she worked as an administrator and adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and later as an administrator at Baltimore City Community College.

Sarah served on the Board of Directors for the Division of Youth and Family Services in Trenton, NJ as well as on the Board of the Camden, NJ YWCA. She was an alumna member of the Columbia Maryland Chapter of the Links, Incorporated and through the years served in many offices within The Links, Incorporated, including President of the South Jersey Links. She was an active member of her condominium community and volunteered at the Waxter Center for Senior Citizens in Baltimore, Maryland.

Sarah leaves to further celebrate her life, one daughter, Kennette Alysia Banks, sister, Elise Gray, three brothers, Sydney L. Cousin, Sr. (Marion), David A Cousin, Sr. (Ann), and Thomas Cousin, Sr., several nieces and nephews, cousins, special friends (Linda Harris, Pam Gallimore, Laura Reddick and Toni Dunton-Butler), and several other dear friends and acquaintances. A Remembrance Service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, February 24 at Howell Funeral Home, 10220 Guilford Rd, Jessup, MD. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Memory of Dr. Sarah Banks to the Van Meter Camden Scholars Endowment at Moorestown Friends School; Swarthmore College Annual Fund; Gilchrist; Links, Inc.; or Success in Style.