Annapolis roots run deep on new Board of Aldermen

ANNAPOLIS' NEW city council is a hard-working bunch with deep roots in Annapolis.

Six of the eight aldermen were born in the city, with about half spending time away for education or careers before returning.

Louise M. Hammond, Sheila M. Tolliver, Classie G. Hoyle, David H. Cordle Sr., Cynthia A. Carter and Joshua Cohen were all born here.

Hoyle lives in the house in which she was born, while Hammond and Tolliver live near their childhood homes.

As for the others, George O. Kelley Sr. moved here 13 years ago this month. He moved from his native New York City in search of a slower pace in which to raise his three children. Michael A. Fox is the most recent arrival, having moved here for a job 12 years ago.

While they all spoke of their qualifications and positions on issues during the campaign, here are a few lesser-known facets of their backgrounds:

Cordle, chief criminal investigator with the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office, says he has always "gone for the risky thing."

His grandfather went to the Naval Academy, but Cordle opted for the Army ROTC program at the University of Delaware. In ROTC, he overcame a fear of heights and became a rappelling instructor. He challenged himself to become an investigator and succeeded. He wanted to become a firefighter and did.

Cordle says marrying his wife fulfilled a vow he made when he was reintroduced to her nine years after once dating her. One year later, they were married. They have been married for 16 years and have four children.

Hammond has always been interested in politics, starting her political activity with a run for student council president.

She ran against another girl and a boy. Hammond recalls that she and the other girl were the first two females to run for student council president at their high school. They both lost, but Hammond campaigned successfully the next year for senior class secretary and never lost interest in the political process.

When she has the time, she likes to watch television that deals with news and politics, such as C-SPAN and CNBC. She met her husband in 1970 at the former Marmaduke's Pub in Eastport, when it was a bar with a few tables that served all-you-can-eat crabs on Tuesday nights for $2.

Carter recalls being one of the first three female African-American hot-metal typesetters at the Evening Capital in the late 1950s. It was a union job and attractive because it was higher-paying than the nonunion positions. Carter remembers the sounds of a duckpin bowling alley overhead: "It was always loud."

She later worked as a typesetter at the Washington Star until it closed in 1979.

She kept the special typesetter's key that was used to correct mistakes. It's become a conversation piece on display at home, and has led to connections with others who were in the printing industry.

Cohen worked on his grandparents' blueberry farm in southwest Michigan for two summers during college. His family would go there for summer vacations, but he was the first in his generation to show interest in working on the farm.

He enjoyed the quiet and peacefulness of the farm and found the hard work rewarding. "It's a great experience to work on a farm, even for just a summer," says Cohen.

He acknowledges, however, that he would not want to farm for a living today. He is a community liaison for the state on its HotSpots neighborhood crime prevention program.

Tolliver was a high school English teacher before winning a federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare fellowship at a time when special-education teachers were being heavily recruited.

She earned her doctorate through that fellowship but never went back to teaching. Her degree led her to a state position in job training and later as a state education aide for 10 years. She continued her career with Howard County government, where she is an administrator for the County Council. Tolliver's time in state government served as her initiation into politics.

Her work in the city grew out of the knowledge of what could be accomplished through the political process. She lives on Weems Creek with her husband and enjoys fishing and swimming from their boat.

Hoyle also was an educator, but her specialty was science education. She received her bachelor's degree in science education and her master's in biology from Morgan State University.

She taught science in junior high school before receiving a grant from Morgan to earn her doctorate in science education and higher education administration.

"This was the Sputnik era, when there was lots of money to send people to school for sciences," says Hoyle.

She moved to Iowa with her husband and children to attend the University of Iowa for what she thought would be a three-year degree program. Three years turned into 17 at the school, and she left Iowa as the university's assistant dean of the College of Dentistry. She took a leave of absence to take a two-year grant with the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and realized how much she missed home.