Esskay

Clyde Selwyn Hartlove, a retired executive at the old Schluderberg-Kurdle Co. - Esskay meatpackers - and former longtime Lochearn resident, died of cancer Sunday at a hospital in Greenville, S.C. He was 90. Mr. Hartlove was born in Newport News, Va., and moved to Baltimore's West Lafayette Avenue with his family in 1921. He attended Polytechnic Institute and studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Johns Hopkins University and University of Baltimore before going to work in 1936 for the old Mutual Chemical Co. in Fells Point.

ED HALE and Donald Trump - buddies? Not long ago, Hale, who knocks off The Donald's role in Towson University's version of Trump's reality show, The Apprentice, didn't have too many nice things to say about Trump. He called The Donald "insensitive" for the way he treats contestants and saw him as arrogant and harsh. But 51 beautiful women and a national television audience later, the Baltimore banker-developer seems to have been won over. Trump was in Baltimore this week for the Miss USA pageant, which he co-owns.

The city Police Department has bestowed honors on 47 officers, employees and citizens in its annual Medal Day ceremony recognizing acts of bravery, dedication to service and assistance from the public. The highest of the awards in the ceremony Wednesday at Baltimore's War Memorial Building was a Silver Star for excellence to Drug Enforcement Unit Detective Bryan S. Campbell for his role in shutting down a major drug ring in 2000 and the arrest of a city police officer who was on a drug dealer's payroll.

Vera M. Gray, 80, meatpacker for Esskay Vera M. Gray, a retired Esskay meatpacker and longtime resident of Baltimore's Greektown neighborhood, died Sunday of heart failure at ManorCare Health Services in Golden Ring. She was 80. Mrs. Gray began working for Esskay's Highlandtown plant in 1951, and retired from the company in 1983. Vera M. Lewis was born and raised on Eden Street and was a graduate of Eastern High School. Her marriage to Vincent Samek ended in divorce. In 1974, she married Samuel Gray, who died in 1992.

EVEN AS John Paterakis Sr. continues to build his Inner Harbor East dream around the new Marriott hotel, he is preparing for the next chapter: Relocation of his H&S Bakery Inc. from his increasingly valuable land near the waterfront. That's what the hectic construction at 3800 E. Baltimore St. is all about. A new $18 million roll bakery is rising on a 13-acre parcel once occupied by the Esskay meat processing plant. Eventually, the H&S distribution center also will move there from Fleet St. and Central Ave. The bread man wants to build a new office high-rise on that prime piece of real estate, too. "It's incredible how fast this thing came out of ground," marvels Robert N. Santoni Sr., who watches construction from his supermarket next door.

As he heads toward retirement, where it all started - to Aberdeen, Cal Ripken is looking back to where the big-league dreams first took hold. Back where a boy, with just a little imagination, could become Brooks Robinson, diving for the line drive, hearing the crowd's roar, playing in the ballparks of baseball legends. He has his commercial endorsements and a fitness center that's poised for expansion, and even owns a piece of a newly opened restaurant. But Ripken's post-retirement business plans focus on recreating boyhood baseball fantasies in his hometown.

Robert N. Smith Jr., 68, homebuilder, firefighter Robert Nicholas Smith Jr., a retired homebuilder and Washington firefighter, died Saturday of a heart attack at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Charles Town, W. Va. He was 68. Until retiring in 1980 and moving to Harpers Ferry, W. Va., Mr. Smith had been a firefighter for 20 years and had been assigned to Engine Co. 28 on Connecticut Avenue, where he was an aide to the department's Fifth Battalion chief....

When Herb Wetherington looks at the fading hulk of a building at East Baltimore and Haven streets, he becomes nostalgic and hopeful all at once. The building is the long-dormant Esskay Quality Meats Co. processing plant, once one of Highlandtown's biggest employers but now a vacant, down-at-the-heels relic most noticeable for its smashed windows. "Because of the memories, it puts a bit of a hole in my stomach to see what's going to happen to this building," Wetherington said as he stood in the parking lot near the building yesterday.

WHEN it opened in 1920, Highlandtown's Esskay plant was a miracle of artificial refrigeration surrounded by stockyards. By 1992, when it closed, the operation was outmoded. The family ownership by descendants of butcher William F. Schluderberg and pork packer Thomas Kurdle was long gone. During a ceremony yesterday, Smithfield Foods Inc. donated the 13-acre site to the Essex Community College Foundation, a non-profit scholarship fund. The vandalized and torched old plant buildings will be demolished within the next few months.

Mary Magelean Wynn, 67, middle school teacher Mary Magelean Wynn, a retired teacher, died Monday of cancer at her Odenton home. She was 67. The former longtime Chesapeake, Va., resident moved to Mary Wynn Odenton several years ago. She taught middle school in Suffolk, Va., public schools for 18 years before retiring in 1995. One of 14 children, Mary M. Grant was born in Courtland, Va., and raised in Petersburg, Va., where she dropped out of high school to help support her family. "She always wanted to get a college education and returned to school after her children were grown to earn her GED. She was 39 and she finally realized her dream," said a daughter, Phyllis G. Anderson of Martinez, Ga. Mrs. Wynn earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education in 1977 and a master's degree in urban affairs in 1985, both from Norfolk State University in Virginia, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in the humanities by Trinity Hall College and Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in 1995.