Martin Marietta

Norman R. Augustine pushed himself away from the large mahogany desk, which, as always, was uncluttered except for a pen set, clock and family snapshots. He didn't want to be in the office. It was Saturday, and an uncommonly pleasant one for mid-March - 55 degrees and sunny.But he'd called the emergency meeting, summoning a dozen top lieutenants to his second-floor office in Bethesda. The question: Should Martin Marietta increase its $1.93 billion bid for Grumman Corp.? Two weeks ago, the acquisition had looked assured.

Paul C. Ergler Sr., a retired Martin Marietta Corp. aeronautical engineer who later became a professor of business management at what is now Loyola University of Maryland, died Sunday of a cardiac arrest at Oak Crest Village. The former longtime Glen Arm resident was 92. Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Upper Darby, Pa., Dr. Ergler was a 1937 graduate of Upper Darby High School. He attended Drexel University in Philadelphia, where as a co-op student, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1942 in aeronautical engineering.

The most profitable company in Maryland is pleasing its stockholders at a time when one might think those same shareholders would be concerned about the firm's immediate future.The company, Bethesda-based Martin Marietta, is one of our country's largest defense contractors and collects nearly three-quarters of its sales from the defense sector.Martin Marietta makes such items as the Titan rocket, underwater radar, and night-vision equipment -- but it's an area of business that is being reduced nationwide.

Leo Francis Dudek, a retired mechanical engineer and decorated World War II veteran who was active with the Catholic War Veterans of America, died Sunday of pulmonary fibrosis at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The longtime Dundalk resident was 85. Leo Francis Dudek, the son of a crane operator and a cannery worker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Canton. After graduating from Patterson High School in 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Stationed at Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, where he served with the 24th Bomb Squadron, 6th Bomb Group.

Martin Marietta Corp. acknowledged yesterday that it is being investigated as part of a federal probe into alleged fraud and kickbacks among contractors and government officials involved with NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston."

Martin Marietta Corp., which has eliminated about 60 jobs at its Aero & Naval Systems plant in Middle River in recent months, said yesterday that more workers will be laid off in coming weeks.A company spokesman, Buzz Bartlett, said that there will be a small number of layoffs at the Baltimore County complex in the weeks ahead, but he could not say exactly how many workers will lose their jobs.Mr. Bartlett said that the reductions will primarily affect managers and administrative staff and are part of a company-wide move to reduce overhead.

Martin Marietta Corp. said yesterday that its third-quarter earnings fell slightly, but the report caused few waves on Wall Street, where the company's performance was seen as meeting or exceeding expectations.The Bethesda-based defense and aerospace company said that earned $100.1 million, or $2 a share, during the three months that ended Sept. 30. That was down from $108.8 million in the year-ago period.Last year's results included a $12.6 million non-recurring gain. Excluding that gain, per-share earnings were up 4.7 percent, the company said.

Martin Marietta Corp. reports it had lower sales and earnings in the fourth quarter but still closed 1990 with record sales and higher profits.For the fourth quarter, the Bethesda-based company reports earnings of $57.2 million, $1.17 a share, on sales of $1.5 billion, compared with $73 million, or $1.41 cents a share, on sales of $1.6 billion in the same period in 1989.For the year, earnings were $327.6 million, or $6.52 a share, on sales of $6.13 billion compared with $306.9 million, or $5.82 a share, on sales of $306.

Who is this guy, Bob Coutts?Is he the future of Martin Marietta Corp.'s Middle River complex, or the person chosen to write the final chapter in the history of a once-proud plant that served as the backbone of the nation's aerospace industry?This is what the 1,400 workers at the Aero and Naval Systems division are wondering as they nervously await word on where, or if, they will fit into the proposed merger of Martin Marietta and Lockheed Corp.The questions also haunt Robert B. Coutts, the stocky, 42-year-old executive who recently took over the corner office at the sprawling Middle River complex where Glenn L. Martin had his desk for more than two decades.

You have to admire Kent Kresa's courage.In going up against Martin Marietta Corp. in a hostile bid for Grumman Corp., the chairman of Northrop Corp. is taking on one of the combatants in what has been called the most fiercely fought takeover battle in the military history of corporate America.It was Martin Marietta vs. Bendix Corp. in the summer of 1982 and it was a classic. The investment community still talks about it the way fight fans recall the 1975 "thriller in Manila" between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.It was during the battle with Bendix that Martin Marietta made famous the "Pac-Man" -- I'll gobble you up before you can gobble me up -- defense.

Michael Stoiko, an engineer and writer who was an expert on Soviet rocketry and played a major role in the early days of the American space program, died in his sleep Dec. 17 at Bridges at Cornell Heights, an Ithaca, N.Y., retirement community. The former Ruxton resident was 91. Mr. Stoiko, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, was born and raised in New York City. Interested in aviation since he was a youngster, Mr. Stoiko studied aviation mechanics at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, N.Y., during the last two years of high school.

D. Richard Tarallo, a retired Martin Marietta Corp. aerospace engineer who was a Navy aviator during World War II, died Saturday on his 94 t h birthday of complications from a stroke at St. Joseph Medical Center. A resident of the Mercy Ridge retirement community in Lutherville since 2005, Mr. Tarallo lived for many years on Hickory Lot Road in Towson. Born and raised in New York City, the son of immigrants from Naples, Mr. Tarallo was educated in city public schools.

Thomas E. Puckey, a retired Army research analyst and a former engineer with Martin Marietta, died of cancer on Sunday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Kingsville resident was 74. Born in Altoona, Pa., he earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Pennsylvania State University and moved to Maryland in 1956 when he joined the Martin Marietta Corp. He worked on what became known as the space shuttle. He retired in 1999 from the Aberdeen Proving Ground, where he was an operations research analyst.

Leonard Hubert Bongers, a retired research scientist who later owned an environmental consulting firm, died of a heart attack April 9 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Westminster resident was 83. Dr. Bongers was born and raised in Weert, Limburg, in the Netherlands. As a student at Wageningen University, he participated in the effort to shore up dikes during the great North Sea flood in 1953 that inundated much of the Netherlands and killed 1,835 people. He earned his doctorate in plant physiology and biosynthesis from Wageningen University and three years later immigrated to Baltimore, when he took a job in the scientific research division of Martin Marietta Corp.

KERMIT R. "DICK" BROWNING, 83, of Stewartstown, Pa., formerly of Essex and Hampstead, Md., died April 12, 2008 at his home. He was the husband of the late Lois Jean (Langham) Browning; the father of Glen R. Browning and his wife Jackie of Lorain, Oh., Sandra S. Jersild of Cacapon, W. Va., and Mark A. Browning and his wife Darlene of Stewartstown, Pa.; and the brother of Caudy Browning of Essex, Md., and Shirley Byrne of Federalsburg, Md. Dick is also survived by 11 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Donald H. Simpson, a retired Martin Marietta Corp. employee and former longtime Gardenville resident, died of a heart attack Thursday at Memorial Hospital in York, Pa. He was 75. Mr. Simpson was born in Charleston, W.Va., and raised in Portsmouth, Va. He went to work for the former Glenn L. Martin Co. at its Middle River plant in 1952 as an aircraft inspector. He retired in 1986 from what was then Martin Marietta Corp. He was an active member of the Retirees Association of Martin Marietta, United Auto Workers Local 738, and Highland Lodge of the Masons.