Crown Cork

Net income for the Philadelphia-based can and bottle-top manufacturer rose in the last quarter of 1991 and for the year because of two major acquisitions, Continental Metal Packaging July 1990 and Continental Can International in May 1991, said Alan W. Rutherford, the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer. Earnings also were boosted by cost-cutting steps begun after merging the new companies into Crown Cork, he said.The company has five operations in Maryland with 675 employees.

You smell damp masonry as you approach the old factory atop the Jones Falls Valley just above downtown Baltimore. The restoration and conversion of the old Lebow Brothers garment manufacturing plant into a new $25 million Baltimore Design School is now five months in the making. Open to the elements since the mid-1980s, it still reeks of abandonment. But that changes by the day. It's a remarkable project in a lightly visited section of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and the part of Baltimore known as Greenmount West.

Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc., one of the world's largest makers of aluminum, plastic and tin cans, yesterday announced it has agreed to acquire CarnaudMetalbox, a major European packaging company based in Paris, in a cash and stock deal valued at $5.2 billion.The Philadelphia-based maker of metal cans, bottle tops, and plastic containers said the combination will result in a concern with annual sales of more than $10 billion."We will be the world's premier packaging company, well-positioned to serve customers that include global marketers of a wide range of consumer products," Crown Chairman William Avery said.

Dennis Livingston, an urban activist who called for jobs creation and a clean environment and who was a pioneer in the Station North Arts District near Green Mount Cemetery, died of cancer Thursday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 72 and lived on Guilford Avenue. "There were those who came out of the 1960s who lost their vision for social change, but Dennis was not one of them," said Joseph McNeely, director of the Central Baltimore Partnership. "He just stayed there and said we can do better.

The stock of Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc., one of the world's largest makers of aluminum, plastic and tin cans, plummeted 12 percent yesterday after the company said it expects earnings to be worse than last year.With net income expected to be less than $55 million in the last six months of this year, the company said earnings per share for the entire year will probably not reach 1994's level of $2.29 a share, which excluded restructuring charges.This is substantially lower than estimates from stock analysts who had predicted the company would earn between $2.38 and $2.48 a share this year, according to Zacks Investment Research, a firm that tracks earnings estimates.

Services for James L. Bowen Jr., who retired more than five years ago as plant superintendent for the Crown Cork and Seal Co., will be held at 10 a.m. today at the Liberty Reformed Presbyterian Church, 11301 Liberty Road, Randallstown.Mr. Bowen, who was 71, died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Randallstown.He had worked for Crown Cork and Seal for 37 years and earlier as a machinist for the Glenn L. MartinCo., now Martin Marietta Corp.Born in Baltimore, he attended Forest Park High School and graduated from night school at the Polytechnic Institute.

Negotiators were scheduled to meet today amid some signs that a settlement may be nearing in the three-week-old strike of 180 employees at Crown Cork & Seal Co.The strike shut down production at Crown's factory on South Newkirk street.Several months of talks between Crown and representatives of Local 1672 of the International Association of Machinists failed to result in an agreement prior to expiration of the previous pact. The three-year contract expired Oct. 7.Workers said the major issues in the dispute are contract changes sought by the company that would allow some work at the plant to be shifted to outside manufacturers.

Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc., the giant Philadelphia-based aluminum and steel can manufacturer, will lay off 70 workers at its Canton plant this month.The layoffs are the final phase of a three-year program to cut costs at the plant at 1200 S. Newkirk St., which makes high-speed beverage filling machines."

PHILADELPHIA -- Crown Cork & Seal Co. said yesterday that it had terminated its offer to acquire Van Dorn Co. for $20 a share.William J. Avery, Crown's chairman, president and chief executive, said Van Dorn President W. G. Pryor "has refused all attempts to negotiate the terms of a possible transaction or discuss the merits of Crown's proposal."Mr. Avery called the Van Dorn decision "regrettable for all parties." Van Dorn said last week that the company wasn't for sale.Separately, Crown Cork & Seal, which is based in Philadelphia and has operations in Baltimore, said it plans to build a can plant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian company.

Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc. plans to spend $4 million to renovate its plant at 1200 S. Newkirk St. as part of a plan to remain in the Canton area of East Baltimore.The commitment comes after discussions with city officials who promised to make improvements in roads around the plant, company officials said."Having completed our financial analysis, and considering the promised support for this area by the city, we have decided to remain in our facility on South Newkirk Street in East Baltimore," B. Douglas Goodell, vice president of Crown Cork's machinery division, said in a recent letter to Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.

Maurice F. Mackey Jr., a retired lawyer who enjoyed writing short stories, fables, poems and even a bachelor's cookbook, died Jan. 26 at his Baldwin home of a brain injury. He was 87. Mr. Mackey, whose father was an Irish immigrant and a Crown Cork & Seal Co. plant superintendent and whose mother was a first-generation Irish homemaker, was born and raised in East Baltimore. He attended Loyola High School until 1937, when he entered the Marianist Preparatory School in Beacon, N.Y., to prepare to be a brother, and Mount St. John High School in Dayton, Ohio.

Casimir A."Wyatt Earp" Potyraj Sr., a retired city police officer who was an ubiquitous presence on Belair-Edison streets for more than three decades, died July 9 of complications from an infection at Franklin Square Hospital Center. He was 84. The son of Polish immigrants, Mr. Potyraj was born and raised on Elliott Street in Canton. He attended city public schools until dropping out in 1941 to take a job as a laborer for 28 cents an hour at the old Atlantic-Southwestern Broom Factory in Canton.

John J. Nagle Jr., a retired real estate builder and developer, died Dec. 1 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Keswick Multi-Care Center. He was 83. Mr. Nagle was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y. After graduating from All Hallows High School in 1943, he began his studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. He left college and enlisted in the Army. He served with an anti-tank unit assigned to the 100th Infantry Division and fought in Europe. After the war ended, he served with the army of occupation in Germany.

Is the future of a new East Baltimore becoming evident on Washington Street just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital? On a long walk through this decimated and emptied neighborhood, it was easy to see where nearly 1,200 houses (on 100 acres) were knocked down. The empty space created by all that demolition provokes strong emotions. I thought of how the Inner Harbor looked in the mid-1970s or the Charles Center in the 1960s.

Donald L. Dillman, a retired industrial engineer and computer instructor, died Tuesday at Carroll Hospice Dove House. The Westminster resident was 80. Mr. Dillman was born and raised in Madison, Wis. He served in the Marine Corps from 1946 to 1948. After his discharge, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering in 1952. He moved to Baltimore in 1952 to work for Crown Cork & Seal Co. He later worked for Montgomery Ward and General Motors Corp.

Mitchell Phillip Myers, a retired maintenance electrician and former Cumberland resident, died Sunday of a heart attack at a hospital in Spartanburg, S.C. He was 81. Mr. Myers was born in Baltimore and raised in Hampden. He was a vocational school graduate and enlisted in the Navy during World War II. "He was an electrician aboard a ship that was sunk during the Battle of Okinawa. He earned a Purple Heart but never talked about the war very much," said his wife of 60 years, the former Margilee Fletcher.

Frederick T. Sulka Sr., a retired Crown Cork & Seal Co. supervisor, died Monday of a circulatory ailment at Lookout Manor in Westminster. He was 90 and had lived earlier in Pasadena and Edmondson Village. He retired from the Highlandtown bottle-top plant, where he worked in the closure, cork and can shops for 38 years. Born in Austria, Mr. Sulka came to the United States as an infant with his parents. He attended the old St. Mary's Industrial School on Wilkens Avenue. Years ago, he was a three-time-a-week duckpin bowler on the Crown Cork & Seal team.

The name Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc. may not evoke the same response from consumers as McDonald's, Coca-Cola or Ford. But millions use its products every day when they zip open cans of soft drink or beer, or pop the tops off bottled drinks.Crown Cork, founded in Baltimore 100 years ago today, is one of the world's largest makers of aluminum and steel cans, turning out billions annually. It is also the leading producer of bottle caps, which were invented by the company's founder, William Painter.