Date of death: 3/11/2018

Saint Meinrad Class: PD 2003

BANKS, Rev. Mr. Marshall D., M.D., 78, of Richmond, passed away March 11, 2018. Marshall “Billy” was born on December 29, 1939, the tenth of 11 children of Willie J. Sr. and Corrine E. Banks in Richmond and was the product of the Richmond Public School System. He graduated from Maggie L. Walker High School and was ranked third in his class in 1958. He played on the baseball team and was president of the National Honor Society.Enrolling at Virginia Union University (VUU), he was awarded the Bachelor of Science degree in 1962, majoring in chemistry with minors in mathematics and biology. He was initiated as a member of the Alpha Gamma Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. in the Spring of 1960. After graduating from VUU, he entered Howard University, pursuing a master’s degree in chemistry. Returning to Richmond, he became the Biochemical Research Technician for the Clinical Research Center at the Medical College of Virginia.It was there at MCV that he acquired an interest in medicine as a career. While working at MCV, he was also a full-time high school teacher at his alma mater, Maggie Walker High School, where he taught chemistry. He enrolled at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. and received his Doctor of Medicine Degree in 1970. Two weeks after graduation, he married the love and sunshine of his life, Kathy L. Dyer, also a native of Richmond.They traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii, where Billy completed a surgical internship at Saint Francis Hospital and two years as a General Surgical Resident at the University Of Hawaii School of Medicine. While in Hawaii, they were blessed with their first son, Marshall D. II “Primo.” Kathy, Billy and Primo left Hawaii and began a residency in urological oncology at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, the oldest cancer hospital in the United States, located in Buffalo, N.Y. He later completed his urological residency at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Mich. In Michigan, they were blessed with two more sons, Martainn D. and Matthieu D.Completing his residency in urology, he joined the academic staff at Wayne State University School of Medicine as a full-time assistant professor of urology and rose to the rank of associate professor. He taught the medical students there at Wayne State and instructed residents’ surgical techniques in the operating room at Wayne State and the University of Michigan School Of Medicine. He left the academic environment and returned to Richmond to open a private practice in adult and pediatric urology.In 1998, he began studying Catholic Theology and in 2003, received a Bachelor of Catholic Theology from St. Meinrad Archabbey College and School of Theology, St. Meinrad, Ind. He was ordained a permanent Deacon in the Diocese of Richmond by Bishop Walter Francis Sullivan in 2003 and was assigned to the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, where he served until his death. In 2006, he retired from his urology practice to devote more time to his diaconate duties as a permanent Deacon.He preached, baptized, performed the Rite of Matrimony and presided at funerals and other responsibilities that were assigned to him.He held membership in numerous organizations, including the American Urology Association, Detroit Surgical Society, Richmond Academy of Medicine, Old Dominion Medical Society, Knights of Columbus 3rd Degree Bernard J. Quinn Council #11710 (Charter Member), Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Msgr. John J. McMahon Assembly #2205 and Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Assembly #3677 (Charter Member), Central Vicariate of the Diocese of Richmond, Knight of the Middle Atlantic Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and a Grand Chapter Life Member of his beloved Kappa Al