Sandra L. (Harris) Rhodes

Beloved mother and grandmother Sandra (Sandy) Lee Rhodes, passed away on November 17, 2022 at
the Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth, NH. She was 80.

Sandy was born in Fairfield, CT in 1942 to Emma (Emily) Harris (Hofer) and Joseph B. Harris, a prominent
mechanical engineer. She attended Fairfield public schools and graduated in 1960, matriculating to a
Bridgeport, CT area nursing school where she met her future husband, Stan Morris, while he was in a
hospital being treated for appendicitis. Sandy moved with Stan to Pittsburgh, PA, where he was
beginning his studies in chemical engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (later the Carnegie
Mellon University), and the two married shortly thereafter. They had two sons, Jeffrey and Seth. After
living in France and Baton Rouge, LA, they eventually settled in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania area,
residing primarily in Coopersburg and Center Valley.

With both of her sons now attending school, Sandy joined the Lehigh County (PA) Office of Aging as a
coordinator shortly after the agency’s founding in 1973. Sandy worked tirelessly to deliver services to
Allentown area senior citizens, setting up centers where seniors could engage with their peers and
discover post-retirement activities. It was a major decision to attend the University of New Hampshire in
1982 that separated her from her work at the Office on Aging, and for decades afterward, Sandy often
spoke fondly of her years at the agency and her contributions to the lives of Lehigh County seniors.

After an abbreviated stint at UNH in Durham, NH, Sandy moved to York Beach, ME in 1984 where she
was to live for almost four decades. Sandy first opened a retail store with a partner in downtown York
Village, which operated for about two years. After the store closed, she purchased a six-bedroom
guesthouse in downtown York Beach and ran it as a year-round and seasonal rental property while she
worked as a remodeling contractor in the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine area, and
occasionally took part-time work in various York Beach businesses. For the last several years, Sandy was
semi-retired, travelling often around the country to see friends and family.

Sandy is survived by her two sons, Dr. Jeffrey J. Morris (wife Sharon) and Seth A. Morris, her grandsons
Jacob and Nathan (sons of Jeffrey), her sister Cheryl Cunningham, in addition to a host of nephews,
cousins, and loving extended family and family friends and their children. She is preceded in death by
her parents, her brother, Joseph R. Harris, and her daughter-in-law Anne L. Morris.

Memorial gifts can be made in Sandy’s name to the American Diabetes Association (diabetes.org) and
acknowledgements can be sent to PO Box 780, York Beach, ME 03910.

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