System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!
December 18, 2001
Ralph O. Kerman, a retired city high school teacher and peace activist who created a Lauraville community garden, died Thursday of a cerebral hemorrhage at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 78 and had lived in Glen Arm for the past two years.
Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., Mr. Kerman was a 1947 graduate of Kalamazoo College, where he later taught physics. He earned a doctorate in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1953.
In 1955, he joined the Religious Society of Friends and became active in its American Friends Service Committee seven years later. He was regional director of the committee's Michigan office until 1971, when he moved to Baltimore and became director of the Middle Atlantic office on East 25th Street until 1978.
That year, he was hired by the city school system. He taught mathematics at Carver Vocational-Technical, Eastern and Northwestern high schools before joining the City College faculty in 1982. He taught math and physics there until retiring in 1987.
From 1971 until moving to Glen Arm, he lived on Elsrode Avenue in Lauraville. The property, once the site of a surveying business, included a 1 1/4 -acre lot that had been partially paved. Mr. Kerman had truckloads of topsoil brought in and made the property a community garden where neighbors grew vegetables. He also planted fruit and pecan trees and built walking paths in Herring Run Valley.
Family members said he used his knowledge of physics and science to voice his concern about the environment, national energy policy and nuclear issues. An active volunteer with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, he testified on renewable energy before a Senate committee in the early 1990s.
He also traveled to Alabama to rebuild black churches that had been burned.
A memorial service was held Sunday at Stony Run Friends Meeting House.
Mr. Kerman is survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Cynthia Earl; a son, Edwin Owen Kerman of Marlborough, N.H.; three daughters, Caroline Wildflower of Seattle, Jody Richmond of Richmond, Ind., and Nancy Parker of Frederick; a brother, Robert Kerman of Batavia, Ill.; eight grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
June 18, 2002
Earl Selby King, a retired human relations manager at Northrop Grumman Corp. and sports enthusiast, died of cancer Sunday at St. Agnes HealthCare. He was 66.
A resident of Severna Park since 1969, Mr. King was born and raised in Baltimore. He was a 1953 graduate of Boys' Latin School, where he played lacrosse. He earned a bachelor's degree from Gettysburg College in 1959.
That year he began his career at Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s Electronic Systems Division in Linthicum. He retired last year from what had become a division of Northrop Grumman.
From 1961 to 1963, he served with the Army's counterintelligence unit at Fort Holabird in Baltimore and was discharged with the rank of lieutenant.
He was an avid Orioles fan and was named the Orioles Fan of the Year for 1961. He also was a Colts and Ravens fan, and had steamer trunks full of baseball memorabilia he had collected, family members said.
During the 1980s, he helped establish a lacrosse program for city children at Harlem Park Elementary School.
Mr. King was a communicant of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 689 Ritchie Highway in Severna Park, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Thursday.
He is survived by his wife of 43 years, the former Marilyn G. Miller; four sons, Todd J. King of Columbia, and Brett M. King, Jason J. King and Christopher C. King, all of Severna Park; and five grandchildren.
October 28, 2001
June Helen Kleeman, vice president of Chesapeake Truck Leasing Inc. and a prominent Baltimore businesswoman, died Tuesday of leukemia at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. She was 73 and had lived in Pikesville.
Mrs. Kleeman and her husband, Albert, started Chesapeake Ford Truck Sales in 1967, building it into one of the East Coast's largest Ford truck dealerships. In 1986, the couple launched Chesapeake Truck Leasing with one rental truck. That business now has a fleet of almost 200 trucks.
"My dad doesn't play golf or anything like that. His hobby was coming to work with my mom," said a son, David Kleeman of Owings Mills. "She was not just his wife, but his business partner and best friend."
Friends and family called her a tireless worker who put her whole heart into everything she did.
Inspired by a newspaper article about the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Mrs. Kleeman founded a friends-of-the-library group in 1988. The group supports the library financially and helps add to its collection of Braille, large-print books and cassettes.
"She was lively, active and upbeat and just loved the library, particularly the blind children," said Jill Lewis, the library's acting director. "She was just a delight."
Even after she became ill, Mrs. Kleeman remained devoted to the library, Ms. Lewis said. When a librarian visited her at the hospice about three weeks ago, Mrs. Kleeman insisted she bring a library membership application.
"She knew there were people at that hospice who would use our materials," Ms. Lewis said. "She was very sick, but she still thought of others."
Mrs. Kleeman's friends saw that same determination in the weeks before she died, when she planned a meeting of fellow businesswomen.
"She did a note distributed through fax and e-mail," said Tommie Tarsell, a friend and founder in 1977 of the National Association of Women Business Owners. "She wanted us all there for doughnuts and conversation."
About 15 of Mrs. Kleeman's friends crowded into her hospice room. "The nurses couldn't believe she was organizing a meeting in her condition," David Kleeman said.
Mrs. Kleeman served a term as president of the Baltimore Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and was a two-time member of Warfield's Business Record's Top 100 Women Business Owners in Maryland.
She was membership chairwoman of the business owners' chapter for many years, and other members marveled at her networking skills, Ms. Tarsell said.
"She could be talking to a butcher, and if the butcher happened to be a female, she would bring up membership in NAWBO," Ms. Tarsell said.
Mrs. Kleeman also was president of the Randallstown Art League, which evolved into the Maryland Art League.
Born June Goldenberg in Philadelphia, she married Albert Kleeman in 1960. She attended Catonsville Community College and received a degree from Dundalk Community College in 1979.
Services were held Thursday.
In addition to her husband and son, Mrs. Kleeman is survived by two other sons, Steven Kleeman of Pikesville and Adam Kleeman of Owings Mills; and six grandchildren.
June 12, 2002
Saul Steven Kushner, a retired Westinghouse Electric Corp. acoustics expert and longtime Severn resident, died of heart failure Sunday at North Arundel Hospital. He was 79.
Born and raised in Utica, N.Y., Mr. Kushner served as an electronics technician in the Navy aboard the USS Yokes, a destroyer escort, in the Pacific during World War II.
After being injured in a shipboard accident, he was discharged from the Navy and enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He then earned a master's degree in physics from the university and taught at its Institute of Science and Technology.
In 1963, Mr. Kushner moved to Baltimore and went to work for Westinghouse, where he took part in numerous research and development projects. He retired in 1985.
He was a Meals on Wheels volunteer.
He was an active communicant of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Glen Burnie, where a Mass of Christian burial was offered yesterday.
Mr. Kushner is survived by his wife of 53 years, the former Alice Lauxtermann; two sons, Jeffrey Kushner of Severna Park and Larry Kushner of Bel Air; three daughters, Janice Kushner of Severn, Monica Keen of Crownsville and Harriet Jill Gallagher of Finksburg; a brother, Harry Kushner of Cleveland; and 11 grandchildren.
July 17, 2002
Anita Mauk Lees, a longtime psychologist and special education administrator for Baltimore City schools, died of lung cancer Saturday at Gilchrest Center for Hospice Care. She was 76.
Born in Aliquippa, Pa., she attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1946 and a master's degree the next year. Mrs. Lees later completed coursework for a doctorate in psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Mrs. Lees moved to Baltimore in 1953 and joined the city school system as a psychologist in 1960. She became coordinator of psychological services and was later named coordinator of the Office of Compliance in the school system's Division of Special Education. Her colleagues remembered her as intelligent and well-respected, and a pioneer in developing criteria to prevent misidentification of minority children as developmentally disabled.
When the state threatened to take over the city's special education department in the early 1980s, Mrs. Lees served as the state Department of Education's liaison with the city's legal defense team to help bring the city into compliance.
"I remember her as a very professional person, dedicated to seeing that children received the best possible educational programs," said Waetina A. Coles, a retired assistant superintendent for special education in the city. Mrs. Lees was also an excellent trainer of teachers, helping them to interpret psychological data for students, Mrs. Coles said.
After Mrs. Lees retired in 1986, she worked as a consultant for parents, advocates and agencies on behalf of disabled children. She also served as a consultant for the Abell Foundation.
Mrs. Lees lived in North Baltimore and was a supporter of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum. She also served as a board member of the Baltimore Cancer Support Group.
"She loved the city and loved living there," recalled her son, Chester M. Mauk of Waynesboro, Pa. "Even when her friends moved to the counties, she wanted to stay close to the things she wanted to do."
Mrs. Lees married Lyman W. Mauk in 1947. He was a copy desk supervisor for the Baltimore Evening Sun when he died in 1964. Mrs. Lees married Harry Lees, a retired vice president of American Expess, in 1977. He died in 1982.
A service for Mrs. Lees will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the Towson Unitarian Universalist Church, 1710 Dulaney Valley Road.
In addition to her son, Mrs. Lees is survived by a sister, Isabel Holstein, and a brother Louis Colonna, both of Aliquippa; a daughter, Nicola M. Mauk of Baltimore; and a granddaughter, Hallie Louis Mauk of Waynesboro.
April 26, 2002
Owen P. Link Sr., a World War II veteran and retired boiler engineer, died of prostate cancer April 19 at Fort Howard Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He was 78.
Born and raised in Mount Holly, N.C., Mr. Link moved to Baltimore when he was 19. Shortly afterward, he joined the Army and at the end of World War II was assigned to Japan. After his 1946 discharge, Mr. Link returned to Baltimore, where he married Jeanie Catlett in 1948.
Mr. Link held several jobs at the same time, including driving trucks and janitorial work, for nearly 20 years. In his spare time, the Forest Park resident studied engineering and got a better-paying job as a boiler engineer at Chesapeake Paperboard Co. in Baltimore in the early 1970s.
A car buff who formerly bought used automobiles, Mr. Link was able to purchase his first new one -- a Ford Thunderbird. He would wash the vehicle every weekend and "only let you drive it if he trusted you," said Jerome Thompson, Mr. Link's nephew.
Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. today at March Funeral Home-West, 4300 Wabash Ave.
In addition to his wife and nephew, Mr. Link is survived by three daughters, Constance Carter of Catonsville, Anna Robbins of Jacksonville, Fla., and Vernell Link of Gaithersburg; two sons, Eugene A. Link of Baltimore and Ivan A. Link of Lake Jackson, Texas; 14 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and a great-great grandson.
June 11, 2002
Margaret Mary "Pat" Lowman, a retired electronics assembly worker who served in the British Army during World War II, died of ovarian cancer Sunday at Hospice of the Chesapeake. The Ferndale resident was 76.
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, the former Margaret Mary Coleman borrowed an older sister's birth certificate to enlist in the British Army in 1941. She was stationed in London during the war years, working as an enemy-aircraft spotter.
When the war ended, she was sent to Berlin as part of the British occupation forces, and it was there that she met and married Melville W. Lowman, a U.S. Army sergeant, in 1946. Mr. Lowman survives her.
The Lowmans settled in Baltimore's Brooklyn community. She worked as a cashier for the old Food Fair supermarket chain, and then managed a News American newspaper route in Brooklyn from 1970 to 1980.
In 1986, she became an electronics assembler at Westinghouse Electric Corp., and later worked for Gould Electronics Corp. in Glen Burnie. She retired in 1996.
Mrs. Lowman, who had lived in Ferndale since 1996, enjoyed crocheting and knitting, and made hundreds of sweater sets and shawls for babies, family members said.
No funeral is planned, but the family will receive visitors from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Singleton Funeral Home, 1 Second Ave. S.W., Glen Burnie.
Mrs. Lowman also is survived by a son, Melville J. Lowman of Hampstead; three daughters, Maureen L. Agro of Pasadena, Bonnie L. Nugent of Severna Park and Peggy Atkinson of Ferndale; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
September 5, 2002
Frederick Milton Maguire, a retired postmaster of a Prince George's County mail processing center and American Legion official, died Tuesday of a respiratory ailment at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. He was 87 and had lived in the Glendale section of Baltimore County.
Mr. Maguire joined the U.S. Postal Service in 1939 and held management positions in the Washington regional office. He retired in 1984 as manager-postmaster of the Prince George's Sectional Center.
Born in Baltimore and raised on 41st Street, he was a 1933 City College graduate. He attended the Johns Hopkins University.
Mr. Maguire served in the Navy during World War II and in the Korean War, and was discharged as a chief petty officer.
He was a former president of the Parkville Kiwanis and was a former post commander of the Parkville American Legion.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ruck Towson Funeral Home, 1050 York Road.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, the former Mildred "Mac" Kline; a sister, Evelyn M. Collomb of Catonsville; and a nephew and niece.
September 7, 2002
Kenneth L. Mann, a retired Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. engineer and decorated World War II veteran, died of heart failure Tuesday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Parkville resident was 84.
Mr. Mann was born and raised in Highlandtown and graduated from Polytechnic Institute. He also attended the University of Baltimore.
In 1941, he enlisted in the Army and served in the North African and Italian campaigns. He was wounded in Italy and was awarded a Purple Heart.
He was decorated with the Silver Star and Bronze Star and was discharged with the rank of lieutenant in 1946.
"He never talked about those decorations and or why he got them," said Edgar Walker, a son-in-law who lives in Abingdon.
Mr. Mann, who began working for BGE in 1940, was an electrical engineer assigned to the company's construction division.
He retired in 1982.
He was a former partner and owner of Mann & Shaw, a decorating company that specialized in work at banks.
Mr. Mann also enjoyed woodworking.
He was a member of Calvary Tabernacle Church in Northeast Baltimore, where services were held yesterday .
Mr. Mann is survived by his wife of 60 years, the former Virginia Jinks; a son, Reichard P. Mann of Lawrenceville, Ga.; three daughters, Cherie Walker of Abingdon, Brenda C. Citro of Street, and Jeanine A. Skeen of Timonium; 13 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
August 10, 2002
Kevin P. McAnally, owner of a computer consulting business, died of undetermined causes Aug. 3 at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He was 50 and lived in Westminster.
Born and raised in Reisterstown, Mr. McAnally was a graduate of Archbishop Curley High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from George Washington University in 1992.
Mr. McAnally, a former longtime Bolton Hill resident, had worked as a waiter and chef and as a counselor for troubled youths in Philadelphia and Louisiana.
In 1990, he was an administrator in the office of the dean of students at George Washington University. From 1992 until 2001, he was an administrator in the office of the dean of the College of Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University.
Last year, he established That Computer Fella, a computer consulting business that specialized in computer training and installation.
While living on Bolton Hill, Mr. McAnally designed the neighborhood's Web site. He was a member of the Mount Royal Improvement Association.
Mr. McAnally was a member and president of the Washington chapter of Dignity, an organization that seeks recognition of gay people by the Roman Catholic Church.
He enjoyed working on home improvement projects, reading and preparing elaborate desserts.
Services were held Wednesday.
Mr. McAnally is survived by his mother, Eleanor E. McAnally of Westminster; and two brothers, Jessie F. McAnally of Bristol, Conn., and Bryan M. McAnally of Hoosick Falls, N.Y.
August 12, 2002
Adrian LeRoy McCardell Jr., retired president and chairman of the former First National Bank of Maryland, died of cancer Saturday at his home in the Poplar Hill neighborhood of North Baltimore. He was 94.
He was a leader in Baltimore's banking community during the 1960s and 1970s, when area financial institutions sought to open more branches and consumer credit card use rose, and he helped guide the bank in those areas.
He joined First National in 1958, and became president in 1961 and chairman in 1968. He retired in 1973, but until last fall regularly went to his office at what by then had become part of Allfirst Bank.
"He was a fine man. He had wonderful instincts and he was extremely dedicated to the banking profession," said Owen Daly II, who was president and chairman of the old Equitable Trust Co. when Mr. McCardell was First National's chairman.
Mr. Daly said his banking colleague was a good listener, ready to hear out and consider the ideas of people who worked for him, which led to successful ventures.
The two banks, along with Suburban Trust Co. in the Washington suburbs, set up one of the region's first joint operation centers in the late 1960s to process credit card transactions, even as they battled for customers, he said. "It was quite unusual," he said, adding that Mr. McCardell was "instrumental in setting that up."
"He was what I could call a good, solid banker. He loved the industry. He loved everything about it and he was good at it," Mr. Daly said.
"If Mac told you something, you could book it," said Edgar M. Boyd, a former managing partner at the brokerage firm of what is now Ferris Baker Watts.
A Frederick native, Mr. McCardell began his career working briefly as a clerk at Frederick County National Bank, where his father was president, after graduating from Washington & Lee University in 1929 and earning a master of business administration degree from Harvard University in 1931.
He became a state and national bank examiner later that year.
After serving as a Navy lieutenant commander during World War II, Mr. McCardell became a vice president at Seaboard-Citizens National Bank in Norfolk, Va. He left after a decade to become vice president of Charleston National Bank in West Virginia.
He held many civic positions in the Norfolk and Charleston areas, and continued his community and professional involvement in Baltimore.
He had been a director of United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., First Maryland Bancorp., the Committee for Downtown and the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce. He was president of the Baltimore Clearing House, treasurer of the Baltimore Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, treasurer of the Loyola-Notre Dame Library, and served on the boards of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the Council for Economic Education in Maryland, and Keswick Home.
He served on the vestry of the Church of the Redeemer.
His memberships included Sons of the American Revolution, the Elkridge Club and Bachelors Cotillon. In 1983, he received a distinguished alumnus award from Washington & Lee.
"He loved tennis with a passion," said his daughter, Katharine McCardell Webb of Richmond, Va. "His life was tennis, church, work and family."
His tennis championships ranged from 1929 in Frederick, to 1998 when he was a national champion of an over-90 doubles tournament held in Orlando, Fla.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Phyllis K. Green; a son, Adrian L. McCardell III of Reston, Va.; two brothers, Robert McCardell of Frederick and Max McCardell of Hagerstown; and three grandchildren. A sister, noted fashion designer Claire McCardell, died in 1958.
July 20, 2002
Paul D. McElroy, a longtime professor of educational administration at Morgan State University who oversaw the training of dozens of school principals, died Monday at Carroll County General Hospital at age 67. The cause was complications from hernia surgery he underwent in March at Union Memorial Hospital, his family said.
In his 32 years on the Morgan State faculty, Dr. McElroy served as dissertation adviser to aspiring school administrators from Maryland and abroad. He also helped create city and state certification programs for school principals. Dr. McElroy retired in 1998.
His ventures into the state's classrooms were not exclusively related to the training of administrators. An amateur magician, he delighted his daughters with visits to their elementary school classes to exhibit some of his tricks, which he'd also showcase at their childhood birthday parties.
The interest in magic dated back to Dr. McElroy's childhood in Youngstown, Ohio, where he discovered a book on magic by English barrister Angelo Lewis (pen name "Professor Hoffman") at the library. His fascination grew with age as he joined the Magic Collectors Association, attended magician's conventions, collected antique lithographs of magicians, and assembled a closet of magic supplies.
His specialty, said his wife, Evelyn Tucker McElroy, was sophisticated memory-based tricks with numbers or cards.
"He maintained this youthful, childlike interest in life," said Mrs. McElroy. "He practiced all his life. He always had something in his pocket."
The son of an orthopedic surgeon who wanted him to be a physician, Dr. McElroy first majored in premedical courses at Allegheny College, but switched to English literature. His interest in teaching led him to the Johns Hopkins University, where he received a master's in education and met his mentor, John Walton.
After a four-year stint teaching at a private school in Colorado - during which he met and married his wife, a Colorado native - Dr. McElroy returned to Baltimore to study for his doctorate in educational administration under Dr. Walton.
He arrived at Morgan State through a cooperative teacher training program called Project Talent, run by Morgan and other local colleges; when the program ran out of funding, he stayed on at Morgan. There, he coordinated the master's program in education administration, and later helped establish the Aspiring Leaders program, which gave promising Baltimore educators the credits needed to qualify for principal's jobs.
Dr. McElroy also helped the Maryland Department of Education develop statewide academic requirements for school principals, said Iola Smith, the chairwoman of Dr. McElroy's former department.
"He was always someone I could depend on to do what was needed to strengthen our credentials and counsel students," said Dr. Smith, who started at Morgan the same year Dr. McElroy did. "I still have doctoral students come to me and talk about what an inspiration he was for them."
Sometimes, Mrs. McElroy said, it seemed her husband's doctoral students had moved into their house in Homeland, so closely did he work with them. "He helped them a lot more than most professors," she said. "He would get them through, no matter what."
In addition to his academic articles, Dr. McElroy co-wrote, with his wife, Children and Adolescents with Mental Illness: A Parent's Guide, which was inspired by his experiences with one of his daughters. He was the first president of the Maryland chapter of the National Association for the Mentally Ill.
In retirement, Dr. McElroy and his wife divided their time between Baltimore and Bradenton, Fla.
Funeral services will be held today at 11 a.m. at the Towson United Methodist Church, 501 Hampton Lane, Towson. There, fellow amateur magicians are expected to perform the "broken wand ceremony" customary at magicians' funerals.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughters Colleen McElroy Aler of Westminster and Denise McElroy of Towson, and a grandson.
