Douglas Hanks Jr.

Douglas Hanks Jr. died at his home in Oxford on Saturday, July 26, 2003. He was 60. Born in Cambridge on July 7, 1943, Mr. Hanks was the son of Douglas Hanks Sr. and Mary Lewis Hanks. The family moved to Oxford four years later, and Mr. Hanks made the town his lifelong home. Mr. Hanks owned a real estate business, but considered his other pursuits to be much more important. An author, artist and sailor, Mr. Hanks had a deep interest in local history and a love of nature and the water. He wrote three books on local history (Tales of Sharps Island; Talbot Memories of J. McKenny Willis; and Oxford Treasures, Then and Now) and two on sailing (Muskrat, a novel about Oxford’s surprise bid for the America’s Cup; and Driven by the Stars, a biography of the Bahamian Starboat legend, Sir Durward Knowles). He also published a collection of his poetry titled Christmas, Coins and Other Poems. One of the title selections urges the reader to consider each day a form of currency, and not to squander a single coin of time. A master sailor, Mr. Hanks raced with his father on one designs and log canoes up and down the Chesapeake Bay, and took part in many off-shore contests, including five races to Bermuda. He served as commodore of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Club between 1993 and 1994, was a past board member of the Tred Avon Yacht Club and a member of the Cruising Club of America since 1975. His family boasted several generations of artists, including Mr. Hanks’ great-grandfather, Edward T. Parsons, a master decoy carver; and Mr. Hanks’ uncle, Ted Hanks, who both carves and paints. Hanks took up carving in the 1970s and produced countless geese, ducks, birds and half-model sailboats from his two favorite wood shops: one in the Oxford home he shared with his wife, Xan; the other at Camp, the hunting lodge Xan’s family owns near Brookville, Pa. Oxford itself was one of his greatest joys. Mr. Hanks worked hard to make the town a better place to live and to preserve its history. He played a central role in building community facilities there and helped protect the town from excessive growth, but Mr. Hanks took particular pride in lighting up Town Creek every December with dozens of dockside Christmas trees. Mr. Hanks graduated from Mercersburg Academy in 1962 and from Roanoke College in 1966. After that, he returned to Oxford and went to work with his father at Douglas Hanks Real Estate in Easton. He became president of the company after his father retired, and recently retired himself. Mr. Hanks is survived by his wife, the former Alexandra Jane Deemer, whom he married on June 8, 1985; a son, Douglas Hanks III, of Miami; a sister, Suzanne Hanks, of Oxford; a stepson, Thomas Waring Fauntleroy, of Jackson, Wyoming; a stepdaughter, Elizabeth Fauntleroy Granville and her husband, David Westerlund Granville, of Easton; a stepmother, Carolyn Sparklin Hanks, of Easton, and three uncles, Fletcher Hanks, of Oxford; Ted Hanks, of Jefferson, Maine; and Edgar Lewis, of Cambridge. A memorial service will be held Thursday, July 31, at 2 p.m. at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Oxford. A private inurnment at the Oxford Cemetery will be held before the memorial service. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Talbot Hospice Foundation, 586 Cynwood Drive, Easton, Md. 21601; Oxford Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 421, Oxford, Md. 21654; or the Junior Sailing Program at the Tred Avon Yacht Club, P.O. Box 337, Oxford, Md., 21654.