Brooksville
Sarah Cox, a community leader on the Blue Hill Peninsula, died on Oct. 16, 2022, at age 83 at her home in Brooksville, a coastal town from which her engagement in a regional ambulance service, an educational foundation, as well as harbor oversight and town governance, created an impact that extended beyond her longtime home and office on Buck’s Harbor.
For more than a decade, Sarah served on the board of the Peninsula Ambulance Corps, which serves primarily the towns of Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Castine, Penobscot, Sedgwick and Surry. She headed the personnel committee for part of her tenure.
Two decades ago, Sarah joined the town of Brooksville’s Harbor Committee, helped write the town’s first harbor ordinance and served as the town’s acting harbormaster for 14 years, keeping an eye on 53 miles of shoreline and more than 700 moorings. She also served as Castine’s harbormaster for four years.
More recently, Brooksville’s Select Board appointed her to the Comprehensive Town Plan Committee, which she chaired for several years, and to the town’s Ordinance Committee.
Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College. Committed to creating educational opportunities for Brooksville’s graduating high school seniors, she served as a trustee for the Brooksville Education Foundation. She helped the foundation fund postsecondary education scholarships for students who enrolled in programs throughout Maine and elsewhere in the U.S.
Providing early-in-career mentoring was a particular focus of Sarah’s personal commitment and philanthropic activities.
Sarah enjoyed longtime ties to Brooksville. As a child, she spent summers in Maine with her parents, sister and brother on the property purchased by her maternal great-grandfather in 1895. She first visited Brooksville in 1946 and moved to the town in 1986. “I’m now blessed with a home on two acres overlooking Buck’s Harbor and down the (Eggemoggin) Reach to the Deer Isle bridge,” she told a reporter for The Ellsworth American in 2018.
Also located on Buck’s Harbor is the office of Lyric Tile Co., a business that she established. The company’s decorative tiles incorporate seashells as the primary design element. The holding company that she and her sister created also owns Condon’s Garage, the iconic structure that Robert McCloskey illustrated in his book, “One Morning in Maine.”
Eager to help mitigate the effects of climate change, Sarah offered to allow placement of a public electric-vehicle charging station next to the historic garage. Several years ago, she guided staff of the Island Institute on a tour of beaches and roads in Brooksville that are vulnerable to sea level rise, storm surge and heavy-rain flooding.
Sarah grew up in Wayland, Mass., and Brooksville, the oldest child of Archibald Cox and Phyllis (Ames) Cox, who predeceased her in 2004 and 2007, respectively. She is survived by her sister and brother, Phyllis Cox, of Denver, Colo., and Archibald Jr., of Pine Plains, N.Y., who will schedule a gathering for remembrance in late spring or early summer 2023. Those who wish to do so may make memorial gifts to the Phyllis Ames Cox Scholarship Fund or the Maryann Snow Bates Education Fund held at the Maine Community Foundation.
Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald 113 Franklin St., Ellsworth.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.