Moving To Baltimore

Aaron J. Steltz, a retired paint company plant manager, died of a stroke Saturday at Stella Maris Hospice at Mercy Medical Center. The South Baltimore resident was 84. Mr. Steltz retired in 1984 as plant manager of the old H.B. Davis Paint Co. on Bayard Street. He earlier had been a paint chemist at the Southwest Baltimore plant. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Woodbury, N.J., he served in the Army during World War II as a radio operator. He participated in campaigns in northern France, the Ardennes and the Rhineland.

Services for John T. Hebron, a retired Baltimore insurance salesman who was an active member of Union Baptist Church and its custodian for more than 60 years, will be held at noon today at the church, 1219 Druid Hill Ave.Mr. Hebron, 98, died Friday at Liberty Medical Center after a long illness. He had lived in West Baltimore.He retired about five years ago as Union Baptist's custodian. He had been a member of the church's trustees, Day Care Center board, Senior Choir and Men's Glee Club.

Mittie Hall Ford, who operated a grocery store with her husband for many years, died Tuesday at Good Samaritan Hospital of complications of cancer.Services for Mrs. Ford, who was 95 and lived on Sheridan Avenue, were to be conducted at noon today at St. Paul Baptist Church, 3101 The Alameda.She and her husband, James Ford, came to Baltimore in 1928 and owned and operated Ford's Grocery Store at 829 George St. for 30 years before they retired in 1964. Mr. Ford died in 1967.The former Mittie Hall was a native of Statesboro, Ga., and was educated in Georgia, where she taught for a time before moving to New York City to study business.

Helen Annette Harris, a retired customer complaints representative for the old Hochschild Kohn department store in downtown Baltimore, died Wednesday at Augsburg Lutheran Home in Lochearn of complications from Alzheimer's disease. She was 92. Born in Westfield, Mass., Helen Guzewiscz went to work as a nanny for a family in Hartford, Conn., after graduating from high school. It was there that she met her future husband, H. Ogden Harris, a typesetter for The Hartford Courant, whom she married in 1932.

Sidney Smith, a retired assistant regional director for the National Labor Relations Board, died of a stroke Sunday at the Northwest Hospital Center. The Pikesville resident was 92. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he earned a bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College. After moving to Baltimore in 1947, he received a degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law. He spent nearly 40 years in government service, including time with the Army Air Corps during World War II. For many years Mr. Smith was assistant regional director of NLRB Region 5 in Baltimore.

Gwendolyn R. Clark, a retired physical therapist, died of cancer Friday at Gilchrest Center for Hospice Care in Towson. She was 70 and lived in Towson. A licensed physical therapist with a 43-year career, she taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore for five years before opening a practice in Essex in 1966 that she maintained through 1997. She continued to offer at-home therapy for another year. Born in New Jersey, she received a bachelor's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and a certificate in physical therapy from the Medical College of Virginia, also in Richmond, in 1955.

St. Paul Cos., the Minnesota insurer that bought USF&G Corp., might look to expand in Baltimore if plans to acquire a property in its hometown fail, a spokeswoman said.Although the company has no immediate expansion plans, it expects the number of employees to grow over the next several years, which could force it to build a new headquarters office.One option is to erect a building in St. Paul across the street from its current office tower, which houses the majority of its 3,300 employees who work downtown.

Margaret B. Brown, a retired apartment rental agent, died of heart disease Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Govans resident was 89. Margaret B. Coleman was born in Portage, Pa., and lived in Harrisburg before moving to Baltimore in 1950. She was a rental agent for Regional Management Co. and leased apartments at Lothian, Parkway Drive and Oakridge Gardens, all in Northeast Baltimore. She retired about 25 years ago. She followed Democratic Party politics and enjoyed watching University of Maryland basketball and football games on television.

Ida S. Miller, who tutored mentally disabled children, died in her sleep July 20 at Roland Park Place. She was 95. Ida Barrett Shelley was born and raised in Forty Fort, Pa. She graduated in 1926 from Southern Seminary in Buena Vista, Va., and earned her bachelor's degree from Beaver College in 1930. In 1933, she married Dr. J. Malcolm Miller, a West Pittston, Pa., dentist who died in 1976. "She successfully taught basic reading and math to children who suffered from Down syndrome and were thought to be uneducable.

Frances A. Harris Meiser, a retired medical and legal secretary, died of leukemia Sunday at a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. She was 66, and formerly lived in the Oakenshawe section of North Baltimore. Born Frances Eileen Adams in Moundsville, W.Va., she attended Gettysburg College before moving to Baltimore in 1961. She had jobs as a secretary for the pediatrics chairman at Johns Hopkins Hospital; secretary and office manager at the Baltimore law firm of Gallagher, Evelius & Jones; and an administrator for the chairman of plastic surgery at Hopkins.