Duane Saunders Sr., Downtown Baltimore leader, remembered for service commitment

When Duane Saunders Jr. was preparing to take a leap of faith to launch a video agency, his father, true to form, was quick to talk ideas and offer pointers.

The launch included photo and video shoots with his parents, grandparents, his wife, a few friends and a mentor, the people he considered critical to supporting him.

“Crushingly enough for me, that was the last time I saw my dad in person,” he said.

Duane Saunders Sr., the vice president of operations at Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, died May 10 at age 52. He leveraged technology to improve the operations team’s structure and spearheaded the organization’s 311 integration efforts.

Last week, Saunders’ colleagues lowered the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore flag in Hopkins Plaza to honor him. It was Saunders’ idea to add the group’s flag to the area — a testament to his vision and drive, said Shelonda Stokes, the group’s CEO and president.

“He’s just somebody who just saw stuff and would do it,” Stokes said. “It’s so sad because, in his death, what you really see is all of the stuff that you didn’t know that he was doing that touched so many people.”

His twin brother, Darwin Saunders, who does contract work with Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, said he grieves for his brother’s team and what it has lost. He said his brother was focused, driven and accountable, but that his passion had been in service and improving systems.

That’s what led Duane Saunders Sr. to Downtown Partnership, and the opportunity to work with him brought Darwin Saunders over.

“We had plans, oh man, the stuff we were going to get done in the city. I don’t want to do it without him, but I know I can,” Darwin Saunders said, holding back tears.

Lashonda Wright, the partnership’s senior operations manager, recalled that Saunders Sr. meant business from his first meeting with the team in March 2025. She noticed how he was gathering information not only about the team’s work but the individual skills of each member.

“I remember thinking to myself that this is a man with a method,” Wright said.

Geon Floyd, the manager of homeless outreach at the partnership, said he admired Saunders’ intelligence and willingness to share knowledge. Though stern and solutions-driven, Floyd said, Saunders was also a caring leader.

Floyd recalled that, after a team member was injured in a car accident on New Year’s Eve, he told Saunders and they met at the hospital the next morning.

“I’ve had a profound respect for him since that day,” Floyd said. “It showed me that he was a caring person.”

Saunders spent his career working in financial planning and analysis, business consulting and management. He recently authored a book, “The Art of Decision Science,” a framework to help leaders think, plan and execute changes.

Before moving to Downtown Partnership, Saunders served as assistant commissioner of inspections and emergency operations in the city housing department from 2020-22.

He was also a member of the 2026 class of The Leadership, a nine-month leadership development and training program.

David Sachs, the executive director of the program, said they bonded over their shared love of jazz great Miles Davis. Family members said Saunders was a huge jazz head, having played the trumpet and been a part of the choir in high school. He even named one of his sons Davis Miles.

Sachs described Saunders as “a leader among leaders” who was principled and cared deeply about Baltimore.

“He took principle to action,” Sachs said. “We saw someone who had moral clarity and who was willing to step up and take action for things that he deeply believed in.”

Darwin Saunders said his twin brother’s service-based leadership emanated from the examples set for them as children by their parents and other relatives. The twins were born 10 minutes apart on Dec. 20, 1973.

They grew up in a church family, his brother said. Their grandfather, the late Bishop Monroe Saunders Sr., founded the First United Church of Jesus Christ in Baltimore in 1965. He also founded the Transformation Church of Jesus Christ, which their father, Bishop Monroe Saunders Jr., has pastored since the early 2000s.

It spawned the Center for Creative Learning, a private Christian primary school that the twins attended, and housing projects for older people and people with disabilities. The family relocated to Howard County when the boys were in middle school, Darwin Saunders said.

They graduated from Howard High School in 1991. One of their classmates, Dominique Pierre-Toussaint, recalled on Facebook how the brothers welcomed him as a newcomer from New York.

“Duane invited me to sit with him, his twin brother Darwin, and their friends. It may have seemed like a small gesture to others, but for a new kid trying to find his footing, it meant everything,” Pierre-Toussaint wrote. “From that day forward, Duane and Darwin always looked out for me.”

After high school, Duane Saunders enlisted in the National Guard. According to his LinkedIn profile, he served in the Army from 1992-99. He graduated from American University in 2005, per his Facebook account.

Darwin Saunders said his brother met his future wife, Theresa, when they were teenagers. They married in 1994, according to their Facebook profiles.

Theresa Saunders was not available for an interview, but Duane Saunders Jr. said his father was a deeply loving husband and a family man. Their family often bonded over food — with Saunders Sr. considered the master chef.

“With Memorial Day coming around the corner, it’s really going to be different ’cause it would be around this time he would, man, already have a game plan in place for the grill and having the steamed crabs and everything,” Duane Saunders Jr. said, laughing. “He’ll accept help in the kitchen, but he will be like, ‘Yeah, nah, this is what I’m doing.”

Saunders’ funeral is scheduled for Saturday at the Transformation Church of Jesus Christ, where he was an ordained elder.

Duane Saunders Jr. said he is thankful his last time with his father, when he was preparing to launch his own business, was filled with joy. He’ll miss his father’s wisdom, hugs and bonding over video games, martial arts films and Ravens football.

“I wish I had another moment just to spend some one-on-one time with him because I still have many questions that I feel that only he has the answer to,” he said. “He always knew what to say. … I just wish I had another hug from the man. I just wish I had one more hug and just more conversations on life.”