Father

THE ROLAND PARK Second Presbyterian Church looked absolutely stunning last Saturday for the wedding of Natalia Pia Melanie Sommer and Richard Matthew Dohler. Thousands of wildflowers, miles of lace ribbons and tulle, and window sills decorated with Singapore orchids set the stage for the nuptials of the daughter of pop music star Donna Summer and her first husband, Helmut Sommer,and the son of Dick and Bonna Dohler, he's an Ellicott City builder.The church was filled with the music of German trumpeteer Langston Fitzgerald and selections of Bach, Beethoven and Vivaldi, played by the church's music director Margaret Budd on the organ.

Autopsies showed that deaths of a father and his two teenage sons found in a Kent County manure pit Thursday were accidental. Maryland State Police said Glen W. Nolt, 48, Kelvin R. Nolt, 18, and Cleason S. Nolt, 14, all of Peach Bottom, Pa., died of suffocation during a farming accident. Their bodies were recovered from a pond of liquid manure at Centerdel Farm, a 200-acre dairy farm in the 12000 block of Vansant Corner Road in Kennedyville. Multiple injuries contributed to Cleason Nolt's death, police said.

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

A 23-year-old Owings Mills man stabbed his father multiple times during a fight in the family's home on Friday evening, according to Baltimore County police. When officers arrived at the home in the unit block of Melissa Court in Owings Mills shortly after 6:30 p.m., they found the father, who is in his mid-50s, with multiple stab wounds and the son subdued, said Det. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. "I don't believe the fight was going on when (officers) arrived," Batton said.

I hope everyone has taken a few moments to collect themselves after that spectacular finale. Midway through, I was a bit worried as the episode was beginning to seem more like a series finale than a season finale. However, the last 15 minutes provided everything a good finale should: suspense, murder, a love triangle (quadrangle!), a drug overdose, break-ups (bonus points for calling off an engagement), a conniving friend, heart break, a parent finding their child unconscious, unplanned pregnancy, a declaration of “never speak to me again” followed by a quick hang up, an engagement, a serious accident (plane instead of car, way to go big!

Have you ever noticed that no matter how late you call home or return home, when you have left the children in the care of their father, they are still not in bed?Have you ever felt that you might stay out all night, return home at dawn and find the kids still awake?So, as you might guess, I was not surprised to call home from work one night at 10:30 and hear the sweet voices of my children in the background."What are the kids doing still awake?" I asked."We're playing strip poker," was my husband's response.

Heading home after a tough day at work, Jeremy Haugh is beat — too tired, he knows, to run. Someone else has other ideas. Routinely, Haugh said, as he pulls his SUV into the driveway of the family's home in Charlottesville, Va., 8-year-old Jeremiah awaits, on the porch, flapping his arms excitedly in the air. That's the best he can do to tell his father he's ready to go. Haugh shrugs, smiles and hugs his son. Moments later, having changed...

WASHINGTON -- Her voice is a surprise.First, because it is so deep and husky, older than her 41 years, the kind of voice that goes with a smoke and a Scotch, not a tailored, working-woman wardrobe and a perfect orb of camera-ready hair.But second, because it is so remarkably unfamiliar.After Bob Dole's four decades in public life, his repeated presidential campaigns and his just-capped career in Congress, his grown daughter, Robin, who has lived near him in the Washington area almost her entire life, has remained virtually unseen and unheard by the public.

It was business as usual for Patterson junior guard Aquille Carr in Thursday's Class 3A state semifinal game against Tuscarora. At Comcast Center, Carr scored a game-high 24 points in a 70-46 win that sent the No. 3 Clippers to Saturday's state title. The rest of the night - carrying into this morning - was far from the norm for Carr, however.  At approximately 6:35 a.m. this morning, Carr, 18, became a father when his girlfriend, Treshonda, gave birth to a baby girl they named Averi.

In a recent column, Dan Rodricks ("The absurd arguments against same-sex marriage," Feb. 2) failed to interact with the actual points I made in my testimony against redefining marriage in Maryland. I pointed out that "the law is a teacher" and predicted that "birth rates would fall" because "[w]e would teach that procreation is no longer a uniquely important public interest. " Mr. Rodricks responds that "gay and lesbian couples have found ways of having babies. " This says nothing about whether we would maintain a "replacement rate," or plunge into demographic crisis, like we see in Japan and many European countries.

Legendary singer-songwriter Judy Collins will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Women in Recovery Luncheon May 22 at Father Martin's Ashley, a non-profit alcoholism and drug addiction treatment center near Havre de Grace. The luncheon celebrates and honors the lives of women in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Collins overcame addiction when entering treatment in 1978, and has been living a life of recovery for over 30 years, according to her biography. Collins has been a strong advocate for addiction recovery and also suicide prevention since losing her son to suicide.

It's a parent's worst nightmare. A father from Forest Hill accidentally backed his lawn mower into his five-year-old daughter, severing her feet. The accident happened at about 6:30 p.m. Monday when many in the neighborhood were out doing evening yard work, said Rich Gardiner, spokesman for The Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association. The father didn't see the child when he put the mower in reverse, Gardiner said. He only heard her screams. The girl was flown to Johns Hopkins Children's Center where her feet could not be saved, he said.

Sam Darcangelo learned about lacrosse at a young age from her father, national Hall of Famer Jim Darcangelo, a two-time All-American at Towson and a U.S. national team player. She took to the sport quickly and turned into an All-Metro second-team player at Maryvale. A versatile midfielder, Darcangelo had scored 44 goals and added nine assists entering Wednesday for the No. 5 Lions this spring. She also plays for the ROME lacrosse club and for the Lions' field hockey team. She has signed to play at Florida next season.

The father of twins acquitted of animal cruelty charges Wednesday criticized the investigation that left the young men behind bars for nearly three years, but the state's attorney's office said there were no regrets in retrying the dog-burning case. "The police are supposed to be protecting," Charles Johnson said Thursday. He reiterated arguments from defense lawyers that the brothers were wrongfully identified as suspects. But a spokesman for State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein said the decision was made to retry the case in part because all but one juror agreed to convict the brothers in the first trial.

Julien Rosaly's father does not accept that Baltimore police did the best investigation they could with the information they had. He wants them to apologize for arresting his son and friend and charging him with robbing a couple at gunpoint in South Baltimore. But police and prosecutors will mostly likely not say they're sorry, despite dropping all charges against the two men on Friday after reviewing a videotape that shows Rosaly eating in a restaurant at the time of the attack.

A tragic fatal shooting of a 4-year-old boy who police said accidentally shot himself and his mother earlier this month in their Eastern Shore house has led to criminal charges filed against the father. The boy, Jamal A. Woolford Jr., accidentally shot himself with his father's handgun inside their Hebron home, police said, and the same bullet struck his mother, Shanice A. Kellam, 24. Jamal died from a gunshot wound to the chest. On Monday, Maryland State Police said a Wicomico County grand jury indicted the boy's father, Jamal A. Woolford Sr., 29, with manslaughter, reckless endangerment, permitting firearm access by a minor, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and other drug counts.

My father was a serious man, with a dry wit reserved mostly for those closest to him. He was a private person, and his death, because of the circumstances, was more public than anything he had ever done in his life. Sam Davis Jr. died on Dec. 9, 2009, in a fire at his home in West Baltimore. It was a tragic and abrupt end to the life of a South Carolina sharecropper's son who came to Baltimore during the late 1950s and survived the turbulent 1960s to raise three children, send them all to college, purchase a half-dozen cars and a home.

The retouching on the black-and-white photograph is a giveaway. The good looks of the suave young man peering out from one of Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts student passbooks rival those of a movie star. The confident gaze, hint of a smile and darkroom-perfected complexion were all characteristic of portraiture in the 1930s and 1940s. Next to the headshot, a red ink stamp pinpoints the date first hinted at by the portrait's signature style: Oct. 31, 1939. That was the last time Jerzy Kajetanski used his bus pass in his native Poland, two months after the Sept.

The following is an open letter to my 12-year-old son. Dear Brian, Every morning when I come into your room to wake you for middle school, I pause, for a moment, and marvel. I can still see traces of that kid in the red wool cap and lumberjack coat up on my shoulders in that portrait above your bed. When I look at you, I see a boy bursting with ideas and creativity. When I look at you, I see a boy who honored his daddy's genes, shooting up tall and narrow as bamboo.

Orioles batting practice pitcher Rudy Arias will leave the team Thursday to travel to Miami and be sworn in as a United States citizen Friday. Arias, 55, moved to the U.S. from Cuba when he was just a few years old and his father was playing baseball in the states. He grew up in Miami and maintained his Cuban citizenship. “I never felt living in Miami, I needed it,” Arias joked. But when Arias worked for an independent club in Winnipeg a couple years ago he always slowed up the process going across the border - and he was chided by his old manager for that.