Parachute

Army Sgt. Steven Robertson straddled the open doorway of the twin-propeller plane, half of his untethered body exposed to the whipping wind, and strained to spot the 50-yard line of M&T Bank Stadium 4,000 feet below. The Fokker C-31A Friendship of the Army Parachute Team banked 10 degrees left and right according to the hand signals of Golden Knights squad leader Sgt. 1st Class Harold Meyers, who was crawling an all fours, alternately poking his quickly reddening nose out of the two rear open doors.

Oct. 22 1797 French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris.

From the craggy promontories of Block Island, R.I., to the "American utopia" of Chautauqua, N.Y., the creative genius of humankind asserts itself. And there is time to marvel. Herewith, a paean in five parts to the elixir of time off. 1. Change agent. Violinist Aaron Dworkin is a walking billboard for diversity. Born to an Irish Catholic mother and a black Jehovah's Witness father, and the adopted son of a Jewish couple in New York, Mr. Dworkin learned music at the foot of an immigrant teacher, a man whose daily command to him was: "You no talk.

At a time when executives routinely score payouts worth tens of millions of dollars for selling a company, Mercantile Bankshares Corp. chief Edward J. "Ned" Kelly III could have bargained for a bigger potential "golden parachute" when his contract was up for renewal this year. But he didn't. Instead he surprised board members by suggesting they drop provisions in his contract that would have brought him a $9 million windfall when and if the Baltimore bank were sold. In the world of executive compensation, where exit packages for corporate America have become a lightning rod for shareholders and corporate ethicists, this might be the equivalent of man-bites-dog.

Exhibit 10(A) of Constellation Energy's third-quarter financial report could have made you some money if you knew it portended a merger deal and a temporary pop in Constellation's stock - but not as much money as it's going to make company boss Mayo Shattuck. The document, filed Nov. 9 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was the first of three lucrative renegotiations of Shattuck's "golden parachute" severance agreement made while the company was contemplating a merger that would trigger the deal.

On Friday, October 21, 2005, at his home, WILLIAM G. KEMP, 86, of Elkton, MD. Born in Baltimore, MD, on July 12, 1919, he was the son of the late William G. Kemp and Mary Jane Klausman Kemp. Mr. Kemp was a graduate of City College in Baltimore and was attending Marietta College, Marietta, OH, when WWII began. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and was a parachute instructor. After completing Officer Candidates School in Ft. Belvoir, Captain Kemp was a Parachute Infantry Unit Commander and served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

William L. Davis Jr., a retired construction company executive, decorated World War II combat veteran and founder of an Irish folk band that has been performing in the Baltimore-Washington area for more than three decades, died of Parkinson's disease Sunday at his Sykesville home. He was 84. Mr. Davis was born and raised in Baltimore, the eldest of five children. His father was of Welsh descent and his mother an immigrant to Baltimore from Ireland's County Mayo. "He began singing when he was a kid growing up in the old 10th Ward, and performing in skits and shows at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church," said son-in-law Michael D. Fadrowski of Westminster.

DON'T CALL IT sweet surrender, but the impending capitulation of Six Flags Inc. to the assault of Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder does not come without rewards for the theme-park company's incumbent managers. There is, for example, the opportunity for them to talk trash about the person who single-handedly accomplished what they couldn't do for a year: get the stock over $6. Last summer, as Six Flags shares plunged toward $3.49, Chief Executive Officer Kieran E. Burke blamed the company's poor results on bad weather and a bad economy and said, "We still hope to grow the business modestly."

NEW YORK - Philip J. Purcell's golden parachute has a platinum lining. The board of Morgan Stanley has awarded Purcell, who retired as chairman and chief executive after a bitter struggle for control of the firm, an exit package worth an estimated $113.7 million. The disclosure by the firm late yesterday came two days after it reported that John J. Mack signed a contract worth up to $25 million a year to return to Morgan Stanley as Purcell's successor. Purcell leaves with a long list of parting gifts, including a departure bonus worth $42.7 million based on the company's performance through the second quarter of this year.

WASHINGTON - Merck & Co. Inc., seeking to keep managers from leaving after the withdrawal of its Vioxx painkiller, has adopted a plan to give severance payments to more than 200 executives if control of the company should change. The severance plan is designed to protect executives should the company become a takeover target. Participants are entitled to a cash severance of as much as triple their base salary, plus a bonus, Merck said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing yesterday.