Sarah Camp Cory
February 19, 1941 – May 4, 2017
Sarah Camp Cory, 76, of Moraga, passed away on Thursday, May 4 at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek, losing her battle with complications from abdominal surgery seven months ago. She is survived by her sister, Addie Louise Segars of Sumter, South Carolina, brother George Wise of Shafter, California, her four children, Louise (Tom), Mike Jr. (Kim), Bill (Kristy), Charlie, and her nine grandchildren.
Sarah was born in Augusta, Georgia in 1941, the third and youngest child of Louise Phifer Wise and George William Wise. She spent the first 15 years of her life in rural South Carolina, living in the town of Trenton where her parents were farmers. Eleven years after her father passed away, when Sarah was 15 years old, her mother was remarried to Wofford (Bill) Benjamin Camp. Bill was originally from South Carolina, but had moved to Bakersfield, California where he started a farming operation, which prompted Sarah and family to relocate to Bakersfield in 1956.
Sarah attended a variety of colleges, starting at the University of South Carolina, then transferring to UC Santa Barbara, and finally finishing her studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences in 1963. She moved to San Francisco and worked at Merritt Hospital in Oakland as a Nuclear Medicine technician, a job she always loved. While living in San Francisco she met her future husband, Mike Cory, Sr. She and Mike were married in 1966 in Bakersfield, and in 1967 Sarah and Mike had a home built in Moraga, the house Sarah lived in for 50 years.
In 1969, after the birth of her first child, Sarah joyfully supported her family and community as a homemaker, school volunteer, member of the PTA, an Elder at Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church, member of Moraga Service League, President of the Moraga Historical Society, youth sports coach, spiritual teacher and nurturer. She and Mike became avid golfers, and her left-handed, sidewinder swing launched beautiful, towering drives that left her playing partners envious. After Mike passed away in 1998, Sarah continued golfing, volunteering for local organizations, playing bridge and tending to her beautiful garden.
In recent years, Sarah had many battles with health issues, and fought through them all with a champion’s spirit. She was an inspiration, a positive role model, and a go-getter who rarely did things the easy way, but always managed to achieve whatever she set her mind to doing.
Thank you to all our friends and family who have been so supportive over the years, and particularly during this last seven months.
Services will be held at 1:30pm on Friday, May 12 at Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church in Moraga, California.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the John Muir Health Foundation or the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.