Daily Record

William Albert Rowe Jr., a retired certified public accountant and former longtime Towson resident, died of bladder cancer Wednesday at Talbot Hospice House in Easton. He was 86. Mr. Rowe was born in Baltimore and raised in Towson. He was a 1938 graduate of Towson High School and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the Johns Hopkins University in 1943. Mr. Rowe worked 30 years for the firm of Haskins and Sells, which later became Deloitte & Touche. Among his clients were Glenn L. Martin, founder of the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River, and the Maryland State Banking Commission, family members said.

George C. O'Connell Sr., a retired Baltimore businessman who was known as "Mr. St. Paul's" because of his association with the Brooklandville private school for more than seven decades, died of heart failure Thursday at Keswick Multi-Care Center. The former Ruxton resident was 88. Mr. O'Connell was born in Rochester, N.Y., and moved to Baltimore in 1927 with his mother. In 1930, he entered St. Paul's School - then located on Rogers Avenue in Mount Washington - as a boarder after being offered a scholarship because of his singing voice.

ONCE, Edwin Warfield IV was one of the best-known names in the publishing business in Maryland. Then, he basically vanished. After selling the Daily Record and Warfield's business magazine, which he had built into solid publications, Warfield chased the dot.com dream in Florida, buying and starting online technology and business publications with his own money and backing from Wall Street financier Bruce Wasserstein, among others. But the dot.com boom caused him a setback - personally and professionally.

Like Subway's famous sandwich-eating spokesman, Raymond Bond was once a certifiably obese man who shed nearly half his weight with rigorous diet and exercise. So impressed were the staff members at Bond's fitness club, he says, that they asked him to pose for a photograph to be posted on the bulletin board of the Padonia gym. He agreed. But within days of the photo shoot, an image of Bond holding the size 46 pants he wore when he weighed 331 pounds began appearing in newspapers, fliers and coupons around the Baltimore area as the centerpiece of Brick Bodies' new advertising campaign.

The hippodome, aka ... In time, it probably will be known as just the Hippodrome, or maybe the Hipp, as some in the theater crowd already prefer. But officially, the sumptuously revived theater on downtown's west side has more names than a German prince. Each name, of course, has big dollars behind it. The entire four-building complex -- which cost $62 million, much of it coming from the state in grants or bonds -- is the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center ($5 million donation). Within the complex, the new lobby wing is the Constellation Energy Pavilion ($1 million)

New Positions Scordos is Pennysaver information systems chief Pennysaver Group Inc. announced that John Scordos has joined the Hanover-based publisher as information systems director. He plans and directs all activities of the information systems department and secures data processing systems. Formerly a consultant and chief technology officer for United Press International, he was also business director of The Washington Times newspaper. Advertising Miller is copy editor for Campbell Group The Campbell Group appointed Bruce Miller as a copy editor.

The Pennsylvania elementary school principal slashed while fighting off a machete-wielding attacker may never fully heal from the wounds to her hands, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday. Norina Bentzel, 41, whose actions during the Friday attack at North Hopewell-Winterstown Elementary School in York County, Pa., were described by police as "heroic," was in stable condition after seven hours in surgery to reattach a nearly severed little finger and repair cut nerves and tendons, said Amy Strong, a spokeswoman for Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore.

Maj. Gen. Edwin Warfield III -- a retired adjutant general and commander of the Maryland National Guard whose family's military tradition dates to the American Revolution -- died yesterday morning of congestive heart failure at St. Agnes HealthCare. He was 75.General Warfield's military career spanned nearly four decades and included surviving four days on a life raft after the P-51 Mustang warplane he was piloting was shot down over Japan during World War II.In civilian life, he had been board chairman and chief executive of the Daily Record, which was founded by his grandfather, Edwin Warfield, who was governor of Maryland from 1904 to 1908.

Keith F. Girard, editor-in-chief of the Daily Record since 1991, was fired from the Baltimore legal and business journal yesterday.Girard, who cleaned out his desk and refused to sign a severance agreement he considered unacceptable, said his dismissal involved a disagreement with the paper's publisher over a photograph of Adolf Hitler that ran on the front page of the Dec. 8, 1998, edition.The image of Hitler, superimposed over a photograph of the BT Alex. Brown investment building at One South Street, accompanied a lead story about a proposed merger between Germany's Deutsche Bank AG and Bankers Trust of New York, Alex.

Spirit owner Bill Stealey, who has been aggressively seeking local investors to join him in marketing the franchise, maintains that his first priority is to keep the team in Baltimore and to eventually see it play during the summer as an expansion team in Major League Soccer's outdoor league.Spirit general manager Drew Forrrester, representing Stealey, said the club will make an announcement within the next seven days that will "show a true commitment to soccer from corporate Baltimore."I believe the announcement will be the basis for our foundation for a lot of years to come here in Baltimore," Forrester said from St. Louis, where he was attending National Professional Soccer League meetings along with Stealey.