The obituary  below was written by Mr Brooks Sanders, husband of the deceased.

“Marti Cooksey, retired director of clinical administration for the Child Development and Rehabilitation Center at Oregon Health Sciences University, died October 18. She was 65.

“Cooksey rose from administrative assistant in CDRC’s business office to be manager and later director of clinical administration. She led the team’s transition to the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital pediatrics group in 2001. After 31 years with OHSU she retired in 2006 and moved to Cape Meares in Tillamook County.

“A celebration of life will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Old Library auditorium at OHSU on Friday, October 24, at 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland. Refreshments will follow at the Hatfield Biomedical Information Center.

“Oregon Governor Victor Atiyeh awarded Cooksey a management excellence citation in 1986. She held a cum laude master’s degree from Portland State University in public administration. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1974 in political science. In Tillamook, Cooksey supported the Women’s Resource Center, a shelter for battered women.

“Cooksey earned a Daughters of the American Revolution college scholarship on in 1967 and spoke at that year’s DAR national convention in Washington, D.C. She was born in Asheville in December 1949 and was the first of her family to graduate from college. Her father was a milkman; her mother was a hairdresser. He died when she was 14 and the mother abandoned the family. Cooksey raised her three sisters with the help of her Aunt Betty.

“She is survived by Brooks Sanders, her husband and companion of 43 years, and sisters Karen Anderson of Asheville; Sandra Cooksey of Portland and Linda Lunsford of Barnardsville, N.C. She has one great nephew, three nieces and two nephews living in North Carolina.”