First National Bank

Matthew Sweet only needed two seconds to add, subtract, divide and multiply four numbers to get to 24.In yesterday's 24 Challenge Math Tournament in Baltimore, two seconds was enough to earn Sweet a win in the competition."

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.

Betty S. Shepherd, 51, First National Bank officialBetty S. Shepherd, a vice president of First National Bank of Maryland, died Jan. 14 of breast cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 51 and lived in Columbia.Mrs. Shepherd was telecommunications project manager and a member of the staff overseeing the acquisition of Dauphin Bank of Pennsylvania, which was merged into First National in November. She joined First National in 1978 and previously held positions in human resources, branch administration, information systems and telecommunications.

Thomas Worthington Offutt Jr., a former mortgage banker who led the relocation of Franklin Square Hospital from West Baltimore to Essex, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at Brightwood Retirement Community in Lutherville. He was 92.Mr. Offutt was the founder of Baltimore County Mortgage Co. in Towson in the early 1960s, and retired in 1970. He was a founder in the late 1940s and later president of Baltimore County Supply Co., a hardware, lumber and building supply company in Owings Mills.

COLLEGE PARK -- Junior college transfer Steve Francis and three freshmen won't be the only additions to Cole Field House this basketball season.The University of Maryland and a Baltimore-based bank are finalizing an agreement that would result in the first placement of corporate logos on the Cole Field House floor. It will be named the First National Bank of Maryland court.Neither party would discuss the value of the corporate sponsorship, but it is believed that Maryland will receive from $850,000 to $900,000 over the life of a three-year contract that would put two logos on the court.

A 48-year-old Harford County truck driver was killed yesterday morning when a tanker truck struck him while he talked to a fellow driver in an area at Baltimore Amoco Oil Co.'s Glen Burnie yard where vehicles are refueled, Anne Arundel County police said.Police said Carmen Jack Sorrentino of the 2800 block of Fallston Road in Fallston was struck about 7: 50 a.m. at the yard, in the 800 block of S. Ordnance Road. They said Sorrentino's friend warned him that the truck was heading toward him but that Sorrentino could not get out of the way.Police turned the case over to the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is investigating.

As a youngster in the 1920s, H. Graham Wood of Roland Park spent countless hours sailing the Chesapeake Bay in graceful steamboats with his father, a lumber merchant.His boyhood fascination with the imposing vessels led to a lifelong interest, including co-writing a book, "Steamboats Out of Baltimore," in 1968.Mr. Wood, a retired senior vice president with First National Bank of Maryland, died Friday of complications from a stroke at his home in Roland Park, an area where he lived most of his life.

Home buyers who had deposits in an escrow account with Manor Builders Inc. -- a Hunt Valley-based firm that ceased operations last week -- apparently have lost their money.According to Connie Carson, who had signed a contract for a townhouse to be built at Summerwoods in Owings Mills, when she called First National Bank of Maryland to inquire about her $1,000 deposit, she was told the escrow account had been closed. A call to First National Bank confirmed that the account -- under Phoenix Land Trading/Manor Builders -- had been closed in January.

Baltimore police conducted a second wave of drug raids yesterday in Highlandtown, storming into five homes and arresting five people -- three of them juveniles -- on drug charges.The raids were part of an operation that began April 25 when Southeastern District officers raided six homes and arrested 20 people, including a mother and her 14-year-old daughter, who were charged with dealing drugs as a team, said Lt. George Klein.Police raided four rowhouses yesterday in the 100 and 200 blocks of S. Conkling St. and one house in the 3400 block of Leverton Ave. Klein said officers confiscated 18 small bags of suspected crack cocaine.

First Maryland Bancorp executives signed the final documents yesterday to complete the acquisition of Dauphin Deposit Corp., Pennsylvania's fourth largest banking company, in a deal valued at $1.4 billion.First Maryland, a subsidiary of Dublin-based Allied Irish Banks PLC, grows by more than 50 percent. It now has $17 billion in assets, 291 branches, and nearly 400 ATMs in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia.It becomes the largest financial institution in the Baltimore-Harrisburg corridor.

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.

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.

Clara Amoss Davis, a former First National Bank manager, died of heart disease Saturday at the Dove House of Carroll Hospice in Westminster. The longtime Catonsville resident was 94. Born Clara Tucker in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, she attended Catonsville High School. As a young woman, she did clerical work for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Mrs. Davis began her banking career in 1948 at the old Catonsville National Bank on Frederick Road. After its merger, she became a branch manager for the First National Bank.

Margaret Y. Wilson, a retired banker and volunteer, died of cancer Sunday at her Street home. She was 65. She was born and raised Margaret Young in Rose Hill, Va., and began her banking career in Richmond, Va. After moving to Lutherville in 1974, she went to work for the old First National Bank, She managed its Roland Park branch and later worked at the regional headquarters in Towson. In 1980, she joined her husband as a director and officer of R.J. Wilson & Associates Ltd. and Affiliates, an Abingdon insurance firm.

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.

Adrian LeRoy McCardell Jr., retired president and chairman of the former First National Bank of Maryland, died of cancer Saturday at his home in the Poplar Hill neighborhood of North Baltimore. He was 94. He was a leader in Baltimore's banking community during the 1960s and 1970s, when area financial institutions sought to open more branches and consumer credit card use rose, and he helped guide the bank in those areas. He joined First National in 1958, and became president in 1961 and chairman in 1968.

Lionel M. Depot, an Allfirst Bank vice president who supervised banks in Carroll and Baltimore counties, died Thursday of cancer at his Westminster home. He was 55. Mr. Depot, who was known as Lee, recently oversaw the opening of the new Allfirst branch in Eldersburg. He began his career with Allfirst's predecessor, First National Bank, in 1987, and retired on a medical disability this year because of failing health. Born and raised in New Britain, Conn., Mr. Depot was a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas, a high school there, and earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vt. He served in the Army in the late 1960s, and worked in restaurant management before joining First National Bank.

Allfirst Bank's roots go back nearly 200 years in Maryland. It started as Mechanics Bank of Baltimore, organized in 1806 - one of only 30 banks in the nation at the time. After several name changes and mergers, it became First National Bank of Maryland, which was established in 1864 and distinguished itself by continuously paying dividends to shareholders, even during the Great Depression. For years, First National's parent company, First Maryland Bancorp, aggressively acquired small banks in the state.

Rose E. Scott, 85, singer and artist Rose E. Scott, a singer and artist of many talents, died Aug. 15 from complications of dementia at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 85. Miss Scott and her sister, Marcia E. Scott, lived together in the Govans area and in the Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson until the sister's death four months ago. From an early age, Miss Scott's showed artistic abilities, family members said. She studied violin and voice as a young girl, and played and sang during services at Second English Lutheran Church.