Daughter of the late Sanford Cousins and Elizabeth Nash Cousins, Pat was born in Brunswick on Aug. 4, 1924, and graduated from Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale, N.Y., before receiving her BA in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, class of 1946.
Pat married Lewis William Waters Jr. in 1949, and the couple spent a year after their marriage traveling through Europe by bicycle. She and Bill settled in Westport, Conn., to raise their four children, Jennifer N. Waters, Candace W. Schuller, Lewis W. Waters III and David B. Waters, while Bill worked at International General Electric in New York.
After Bill’s premature death in 1963, Pat moved her young family back to her alma mater, Mt. Holyoke and took a position as assistant director of admissions, juggling a busy career with raising a family as a single parent.
Pat went on to become director of financial aid at Mt. Holyoke, where she also received the Alumnae Medal of Honor for her service as an alumna. She also was instrumental in founding the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, an organization of 31 private liberal arts colleges and universities, and served a term as its chairwoman.
Throughout her life, Pat was an accomplished watercolor painter, having studied with Herb Olson. After retiring in 1987, she returned to Maine to paint full time, settling back into the family homestead in Brunswick but spending each extended summer season in her beloved cottage on Norwood’s Cove in Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert Island. Many wonderful days were spent painting the natural beauty of Acadia National Park and surrounding islandscapes, while introducing MDI to extended family and friends.
Always active in community affairs in both communities, Pat served in Southwest as president of the Causeway Club, board member of the Friends of the Causeway and active supporter of the Southwest Harbor Public Library. As a Maine history buff, she was treasurer of both the Tate House Museum and the Colonial Dames in Portland, and active in the League of Women Voters.
More recently, Pat moved first to the Holden Frost House at the Highlands in Topsham and then to Cadbury Commons in Cambridge, Mass., to be closer to family.
She leaves her sister, Nancy C. Wilder of Westport, Conn., as well as her four children, Jennifer of Alexandria, Va., Candace of Newburyport, Mass., Bill of Bedford, Mass., and David of Cambridge, Mass., along with 10 grandchildren, one great-grandchild and extended family and friends.
A memorial service is planned for August 2014 in the Red Barn at the Causeway Club in Southwest Harbor. In the meantime, memorial gifts may be made to the Southwest Harbor Public Library at 338 Main St., Southwest Harbor, ME 04679.
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