Morgan State University

Charles Robert Salters, a retired assistant dean of graduate studies at Morgan State University, died of lung and brain cancer Sunday at his home in Randallstown. He was 56. Mr. Salters, known to friends as "Bobby," worked for Morgan State as a science instructor and administrator from 1972 until his retirement in April. Friends and colleagues said he was exceptionally devoted to the university and its students, frequently reaching into his own pocket to help buy textbooks or other supplies for those who needed assistance.

In the middle of 350 happy supporters of Morgan State University, gathered yesterday on a sunny campus green to celebrate the new accreditation of Morgan's business school, Winfred Bryson remembered the business books he found in the library when he arrived to teach in 1937.All four of them. Two copies of the same book published in the 1890s, a statistics text, and another donated by one of the last unpaid heads of the New York Stock Exchange. He would be convicted of embezzlement in 1938, three years after leaving the Big Board post.

FOR A CITY its size, Baltimore is woefully under-served in many retail areas. Years ago, department stores followed the middle-class flight to the suburbs. The disappearance of neighborhood variety shops, from Woolworth's to Epstein's, has further aggravated the situation. Good hardware stores are increasingly difficult to come by. And there is a shortage of comprehensive bookstores. Is the city turning the corner, though?Perhaps. New retail space soon to open at the Inner Harbor's Power Plant and at Canton's American Can complex will give city shoppers two big bookstores and other new shops.

City leaders assembled on a small side street near Morgan State University in Northeast Baltimore on Friday morning — steps from the sites of three recent car thefts and at least one burglary — and pledged to transform the region with cooperation from the college and community. "This is about a long-term engagement ... to bring about sustained change in the area," Morgan President David J. Wilson said in announcing the initiative, known as the "Morgan Community Mile. " It's one of a half-dozen similar efforts led by higher-education "anchor institutions" throughout the city to improve their respective environments for staff and students, but also for residents who live near the campuses.

Ernestein W. Baylor, a retired professor of history and former department chairwoman who taught at Morgan State University for more than three decades, died of heart failure Saturday at Oak Crest Village. According to her daughter, Michelle J. Baylor Caldwell of Woodlawn, it was her mother's wish that her age be kept private. Ernestein Walker, the daughter of a federal government worker and a schoolteacher, was born in McDonough, Ga., and raised in Jonesboro, Ga. After graduating from Jonesboro High School in 1945, she earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1949 from Spelman College in Atlanta.

Peter H. Anderson, a former professor of electrical engineering at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. School of Engineering at Morgan State University, died Sept. 19 from complications after brain surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Bel Air resident was 66. "Professor Anderson is a legend without any fanfare. He was a free spirit and a joy to be around. He did what he needed to do to make things better for himself and others," said Eugene M. Deloatch, dean of the college of engineering.

In a rehearsal room at Morgan State University, Nathan Carter slaps at wobbly pitches as if he were swatting mosquitos."C'mon ladies!" he says. "One, two, sing! Sopranos and altos, sing!"Carter is transforming students slouched in Boss and Hilfiger chic into the precise and powerful instrument he needs to conquer Carnegie Hall. As the singers enter the brilliance of the spiritual "Great Day," the notes fall in line, clean and bright as the righteous marching to heaven.The Morgan State University choir is a week from a concert in New York that will mark another achievement in its distinguished history under Nathan Carter.

WHAT CAN WE DO about halitosis?Alexis Mason knows. She knows common bad breath is caused by bacteria, which can be killed by mouthwash.The seventh-grader at Chinquapin Middle School used her own saliva, a microscope and a bottle of Listerine to demonstrate. Hers was one of the intriguing exhibits this weekend in the 16th annual Morgan State University science fair.Morgan had a record 210 entries, and the topics were limited only by the students' extraordinarily fertile imaginations.Some of the topics were beyond lay comprehension ("Two Forms of Glutathione Conjugate Transport Protein Residing in Different Subcellular Compartments," by Ethel Morgan, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute)

No one would argue that a college president who successfully leads an institution through a quarter-century of growth and development shouldn't enjoy a comfortable retirement. But that's not the same thing as the Wall Street-style golden parachute Morgan State University President Earl S. Richardson has negotiated for himself. After Mr. Richardson retires in 2009 from his $389,000-a-year job as president of one of the nation's oldest historically black colleges and universities, he'll remain on the school payroll, get an equally impressive office and collect $300,000 annually as president emeritus - even though his only duties will be to teach a couple of graduate courses a year.

It was a mistake. A wrong turn that led 19-year-old Maishan St. Patrick Nelson to the wrong place at the wrong time.And to the wrong person, a teen-ager wielding a handgun.Perhaps it was also a case of mistaken identity. A mistake that cost Maishan his life.On Friday, after a call to his father in East Baltimore, Maishan drove a friend to Govans and apparently got lost along the way. Less than 12 hours later, he died in a downtown hospital after being shot in the head -- the 223rd homicide victim in Baltimore this year.