Bank Of Maryland

Jeweler to design gift for Paula Deen The Junior League of Hampton Roads has commissioned Annapolis jewelry designer Laura Moore to create a custom necklace for Paula Deen, cookbook author and host of Paula's Home Cooking on the Food Network. The necklace will be given to Deen in appreciation for her work with the Food Bank of the Virginia Peninsula. Moore was awarded the assignment by one of her clients in Hampton Roads and through her association with the Junior League. Porcari to address Signature Breakfast The BWI Business Partnership will hold its next Signature Breakfast at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn BWI Airport, 890 Elkridge Landing Road.

Troubled investments in foreign shipping companies cost First Maryland Bancorp $29.2 million last year, leading the company to withhold bonuses for top executives for the first time in four years.The top five executives at First Maryland Bancorp, the holding company for First National Bank of Maryland, received annual bonuses as high as $450,000 in 1997. But, according to a proxy statement, the company failed to meet its established performance goals last year and no bonuses were awarded.

Banking and financeCrestar Bank names Black senior vice presidentCrestar Bank named Charles F. Black senior vice president/team leader for its Maryland region pri- Black vate banking group. He will oversee the unit's operation and new business development.The 20-year employee had been a market manager in the bank's retail business banking division.A Towson resident, he is a graduate of Washington College and the National School of Banking at Fairfield University. Black is active with the Towson YMCA, the Independent College Fund of Maryland and the Towsontowne Rotary Club.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's inaugural committee raised roughly $1.1 million to pay for two parties for the governor this week, according to a list of sponsors released yesterday and the committee's estimates of tickets sold.The sponsor list shows that $855,000 of the total was raised in contnbutions of $2,500 to $20,000 from almost 150 businesses, law firms, lobbyists and other special interests.Officials said the parties, including Wednesday's inaugural ball and a cocktail party Sunday, cost more than $850,000.

New positionsRadcliffe is programs chief for Lear Siegler ServicesLear Siegler Services has appointed Harry Q. Radcliffe director of federal programs for the Annapolis-based aircraft and vehicle logistics, transportation and maintenance management firm. He is responsible for management oversight and program development for fixed-price services. The Bethesda resident formerly was a general manager with Lockheed Martin Corp. and served as a pilot in the Marine Corps.Kanarek is media director for Baltimore Co. collegesCommunity College of Baltimore County named Harold Kanarek director of media relations.

Florentino V. Cadigal Sr., 98, insurance underwriterFlorentino V. Cadigal Sr., a retired insurance underwriter who moved from Canada to Baltimore in 1978, died of heart failure Friday at Genesis Eldercare Cromwell Center in Baltimore. He was 98.The native of Bohol, Philippines, who lived there most of his life, was an insurance underwriter in Manila who retired in 1967 and moved to Winnipeg, Canada, to live with a daughter.He was a member of St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church, where he served as sacristan, and the Notre Dame Council of the Knights of Columbus.

A 130-year-old habit is tough to break, but First National Bank of Maryland -- a name in state banking since the 1860s -- on Monday will become Allfirst Financial Inc.Bank signs have been changed. New stationery and business cards are in the drawer. A company newsletter reminds employees of a new telephone greeting."We are very well prepared," said Vicki Taylor, regional branch officer at First National's office on South Charles Street.The change comes as First National's parent company, First Maryland Bancorp.

School board OKs purchase of land for Woodlawn elementaryWOODLAWN -- The Baltimore County school board has approved purchasing about 13 acres to build an elementary school.The board agreed to spend $850,000 for the site, which is on the south side of Dogwood Road near Rolling Run Drive.The 600-pupil school is planned to relieve crowding at Chadwick and Hebbville elementary schools.Tax assistance offered at five libraries this weekTOWSON -- Income tax assistance will be available this week at five branches of the Baltimore County Public Library system.

Dancel, High join directors of Columbia arts festivalBernaldo J. Dancel, founder and chief executive officer of Amerix Corp., and Scott S. High, Washington Zone administration manager for Chrysler Financial, have joined the board of directors of the Columbia Festival of the Arts.Dancel, an Ellicott City resident, founded Amerix in 1996. The Columbia-based debt management program processor provides services to the credit counseling industry and negotiates with creditors on behalf of consumers.

Hoff retires as executive of bank, remains chairmanCharles W. Hoff III has announced his retirement as an executive of F&M Bancorp after a stockholders meeting at which he was re-elected chairman of both F&M Bancorp and Farmers & Mechanics National Bank.A reception was held in honor of his retirement as Ceresville Mansion.He began his career at F&M National Bank in 1977 as executive vice president. He was promoted to president in 1981 and chairman of the board of directors in 1993.In 1983, when F&M Bancorp was formed, Hoff was elected chairman, president and chief executive officer of the corporation.

E. Baltimore developer Shannon to step down East Baltimore Development Inc., the private nonprofit group heading a large urban renewal project just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital, said its president and chief executive, John T. "Jack" Shannon Jr., will step down April 30. Shannon has led the group since its creation in 2003. EBDI is transforming more than 100 acres of the Middle East neighborhood into a biotechnology park, housing, shops and offices. EBDI, in a partnership with developer Forest City Enterprises, has completed a biotech building and two apartment buildings and has embarked on a housing rehab project.

Robert M. Cheston Sr., a retired banker and longtime Roland Park resident, died of respiratory failure Jan. 27 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 87. Mr. Cheston was born and raised in Philadelphia. He attended William Penn Charter School and graduated in 1939 from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. He attended the University of Virginia until the outbreak of World War II, when he enlisted in the Navy. Specializing in naval radio intelligence, Mr. Cheston held posts in Washington and the Aleutian Islands, where he read Japanese and German codes.

Advertising *MGH announced the appointments of Lauren Hoffman to junior copywriter, Marilyn Korzybski as a proofreader and Peter Milkman to Web developer for the Owings Mills-based marketing communications agency. Banking and finance *The Patapsco Bank appointed William C. Wiedel Jr. as senior vice president and chief financial officer. He formerly was with Provident Bank of Maryland. *BCSB Bancorp Inc. selected George Engle as vice president/audit manager for Baltimore County Savings Bank.

Marion A. Backof, a retired bank supervisor and former Highlandtown and Dundalk resident, died Saturday of cancer at a Pensacola, Fla., hospice. She was 93. Marion Geiger was born and raised in Baltimore and attended city public schools. She was married in 1941 to Joseph Backof, an accountant, and together the couple owned and operated Backof's, a confectionary store at Eden Street and Fait Avenue, from 1948 to 1961. After her husband's death in 1964, she went to work as a bank teller at the Eastern Avenue branch of the old St. James Savings Bank.

Former Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele is joining the board of HarVest Bank of Maryland, a locally owned commercial bank. This is Steele's first corporate board commitment. Steele, who ran unsuccessfully last year for Maryland's open U.S. Senate seat, is chairman of GOPAC, the Republican political action committee that recruits and trains candidates for office. He is also a partner in LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP, a Washington law firm. "We are honored and fortunate to have Michael join our team at HarVest Bank of Maryland," said Jack Hollerbach, president and CEO of the financial institution.

Jeweler to design gift for Paula Deen The Junior League of Hampton Roads has commissioned Annapolis jewelry designer Laura Moore to create a custom necklace for Paula Deen, cookbook author and host of Paula's Home Cooking on the Food Network. The necklace will be given to Deen in appreciation for her work with the Food Bank of the Virginia Peninsula. Moore was awarded the assignment by one of her clients in Hampton Roads and through her association with the Junior League. Porcari to address Signature Breakfast The BWI Business Partnership will hold its next Signature Breakfast at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn BWI Airport, 890 Elkridge Landing Road.

E. A. "Dean" Docken Jr., a bank executive and avid golfer, died of a heart attack Thursday at his Hunt Valley home. He was 50. Mr. Docken was born in Heidelberg, Germany, the son of a career Army officer, and raised there and in Kentucky, Texas and Maryland, said his wife of 10 years, the former Susan Baker. Mr. Docken was a 1974 graduate of Bel Air High School and earned a bachelor's degree in political science and history in 1979 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played lacrosse, rowed crew and was an active member of Delta Upsilon fraternity.

J. Owen Cole, retired president of the old First National Bank and a fixture in the Baltimore business community for more than 45 years, died of cancer Nov. 2 at his vacation home in Lincolnville, Maine. The Annapolis resident was 76. Mr. Cole sat on numerous boards of local industries. He traveled extensively as a trade development consultant for then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer, a longtime friend who named him to the Maryland Transportation Commission, BWI Airport Commission and Maryland Port Commission.

Florence T. Wood, a homemaker and volunteer, died of heart failure Tuesday at the Blakehurst Retirement Community. The former Roland Park resident was 95. Born Florence C. Tottle in Baltimore and raised on St. George's Road, she was a 1928 graduate of Friends School. She attended Goucher College and the Maryland Institute College of Art. From 1950 to 1975, Mrs. Wood volunteered at the old Woman's Hospital of Maryland, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Children's Hospital, and was a member of the women's board of Church Home Hospital.

Carl W. Stearn, a former Provident Bank chairman who also had headed the old Equitable Bank, died of complications from cancer Saturday at a hospice in Naples, Fla. The Lutherville resident was 73. Born in Garden City, N.Y., he earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College and a law degree from Columbia University before serving in the Army in counterintelligence. He held executive positions with Bankers Trust Co. in New York and Fidelity Bank in Philadelphia before moving to Baltimore in 1982 to become president and director of Equitable.