Gifted And Talented

Autism Expo 2007 to be held April 14 Autism Expo 2007, an information-sharing forum for parents of special-needs children and others, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 14 at Howard Community College, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. Behavior specialist Dr. Vincent J. Carbone of the Carbone Clinic in New York will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Regina Carney of the Duke Center for Human Genetics will discuss current research. Other speakers will discuss a spectrum of characteristics of autism, a neurological disorder that affects social interaction and communication skills.

Matt Pencek, Glenelg SPORT BASEBALL BOYS STATS -- Matt Pencek, a senior, is in his second season of varsity, spending time on the mound and at first base. Along with baseball, Pencek spent three years of varsity on the cross country team and two in indoor track, running the 800 meters, a leg of the 3,200-meter relay and competing in the high jump. One of his highlights came as a junior, when the indoor track team captured a state title. SIDELINES -- Pencek has a weighted 4.21 grade point average and has taken all honors, Gifted and Talented and Advanced Placement courses at Glenelg.

Airport cabdriver dies in crash along Beltway A 43-year-old BWI airport taxi driver died early yesterday when his cab crashed into a tractor-trailer that was parked on the shoulder of Interstate 695, according to Maryland State Police. Yury Fleytman of Reisterstown was driving a 2000 Mercury Marquis on the inner loop of the Baltimore Beltway near Interstate 70 when the vehicle went onto the shoulder, according to police. State troopers arrived at the accident site shortly after midnight, and medical personnel pronounced the man dead at the scene, police said.

An educator for nearly four decades, R. Lorraine Fulton sees her decision to accept a job as an assistant superintendent in Carroll County public schools as a chance to keep learning new things. "If you believe in being a lifelong learner, you want to have new challenges," said Fulton, 59, who has been deputy superintendent for the past nine years in the St. Mary's County public school system. "At this stage in my career, many people would be ready to slow down. But I relish opportunities to face new challenges and achieve the goals I have set for myself."

On Sunday, October 31, 2004, DIANE O'BRIEN DICKERSON, at her home in Upperco; loving wife of Jay Miller and beloved sister of Jacquelyn Dickerson Wood and her husband John A. Wood of Cambridge, MD; loving aunt to Tilghman S. Hubbert and his wife Lynn of Princeton, WV, Corey D. Hubbert and his fiance' Amanda Jolicoeur of Cambridge, MD and Zachary Wood and his wife Anna of Pasadena, MD. Diane was a 30 year educator working for the last several years in...

Patricia R. Merriman, a retired Baltimore County schools administrator who was coordinator of its gifted and talented program, died Dec. 4 of a neurological disorder at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Towson resident was 74. Born Patricia Shapard Rankin in Chicago, she earned a degree in English and drama from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. She also earned a master's degree from Loyola College. In the early 1960s, she began teaching third grade at Franklin Elementary School in Reisterstown, and later taught at Perry Hall Elementary.