Programmer

Veronica Edith Stanton, a computer programmer, died of cancer Sunday at her mother's home in West Arlington. She was 39. For the past 14 years, she had been a programmer at Avaya Communications, a Halethorpe business formerly known as Lucent Technologies and AT&T. Born in Baltimore, she was a 1980 Forest Park High School honors graduate. She also studied at Baltimore City Community College and at ITT Institute, a technical school. She enjoyed reading and traveling in the Caribbean. Services will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Payne Memorial AME Church, 1714 Madison Ave., where she was a member.

Downloading movies and watching them on a computer is not for George Figgs, who has spent the better part of three decades affording Baltimore cinephiles the chance to experience films the way God intended - in the dark, projected onto a bigger-than-life screen, sharing the experience with a bunch of people whose only commonality is an urge to see how the on-screen story plays out. "I think people are tired of going to Netflix or Google or whatever, and...

Mary J. Roemer, 80, computer programmer Mary J. Roemer, a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. computer programmer, died of cancer Sunday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. She was 80 and had lived in Dundalk for nearly a half-century. The former Mary J. Sewell was born and raised in Tonkawa, Okla., and lived in Texas City, Texas, before moving to Dundalk in 1954. She worked as a barmaid before going to work at the Sparrows Point plant of Beth Steel as a keypunch operator in 1956.

Robert F. "Hop" Crooks, a retired Social Security Administration computer programmer, died Monday of complications from a massive epileptic seizure at Marshall Medical Center in Placerville, Calif. The longtime Oella and Catonsville resident was 65. Born in Baltimore and raised in Arbutus, Mr. Crooks was a 1964 graduate of Catonsville High School, where he had been an indoor and outdoor track star. After graduating from high school, he attended what as then Catonsville Community College.

Clayton A. Cunningham, a retired railroad computer programmer, died Wednesday of complications from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease at Franklin Square Hospital Medical Center. The Rosedale resident was 81. Born in West Russell, Ky., he attended the University of Arkansas. During World War II he was an Army staff sergeant and medical records clerk who served in France. In his 38 years with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, he worked in various capacities and retired in 1979 as a computer programmer.

Michael H. Higgins Jr., a retired computer programmer and rail and streetcar buff, died of heart failure Feb. 16 at a hospital in Carlisle, Pa. The former Northeast Baltimore resident was 65. Mr. Higgins was born in Baltimore and raised on Kirk Avenue. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute, he served in the Air Force in the late 1950s and 1960s. He earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Baltimore in 1972, and a year later began working for the state government as a computer programmer.

An education programmer at the Children's Museum of Indian-apolis has been named the new curator of Annapolis' Banneker-Douglass Museum, state officials said yesterday.Marian Carpenter, who also has served as assistant program archivist for African-American history at the Indiana Historical Society, was selected last week for the newly created position at the museum, which has lacked leadership since its director was fired four months ago after less than a year on the job.A curator "is something that's been needed," said Carroll Hynson Jr., chairman of the Commission on African-American History and Culture.

A 20-year-old Calvert County computer programmer was sentenced yesterday in federal court to 15 months in prison for sabotaging an Internal Revenue Service computer after learning that he was about to be fired from his contractor job. Claude R. Carpenter II of Sandy Wash Court in Lusby also was ordered to pay $108,000 in fines by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow after he pleaded guilty in Greenbelt to causing damage to a federal computer....

You know The Fan. You've sat near him at a game, maybe had some of his beer slosh on you, even felt his sweaty, unsolicited hug when the Orioles scored. If you have children, you might have switched seats with them to put as much distance as possible between them and The Fan.Before the end of the first inning of Thursday night's game against the Boston Red Sox, a group of ushers was already descending upon Section 96, row N, with a stern warning: Any more incidents, and you're out. This lecture wasn't delivered directly to Mike Waldhauser, who happened to be perched in Seat 14 -- the spot The Sun has been periodically checking in on since Opening Day.No, it was Mike's buddy who had leapt into the air to cheer, spilling some beer on a young girl seated behind him. Mike, a clean-cut guy of 28, was instantly, magnanimously apologetic.

When historians someday dissect the long chain of missteps that allowed the year 2000 computer bug to flourish, they will undoubtedly linger over the tale of a little-known programmer named Bob Bemer.For decades, Bemer has been an unheard prophet, warning anybody who would listen that using two-digit dates in computers was a prescription for trouble.Thirty years ago he lobbied government agencies to require four digits. He was snubbed. Twenty years ago, he published articles predicting that software polluted with shortened dates would haunt society at century's end. Programmers did it anyway.

A legendary set of call letters returned to the Baltimore airwaves Monday when CBS radio launched alternative rock station HFS at 97.5 on the FM dial. But competitors, like Dave Hill, the head of programming at 98 Rock (97.9 FM), dismissed the new HFS as a sorry imitation of the landmark rock station that in the 1970s and early '80s built a passionate following with its progressive, free-form programming. The HFS identity expanded in the 1990s with the annual HFStivals music fests.

Geoffrey W. Moore, a former computer programmer and linguist, died Friday from complications of cystic fibrosis at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The longtime Lake-Walker resident was 36. Mr. Moore was born in Detroit and moved in 1976 with his family to the city's Lake-Walker neighborhood. He attended Loyola High School and graduated in 1996 from Towson Catholic High School. He attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. G. William Moore, a pathologist with the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System, said his son had a talent for languages and was fluent in Japanese, German and Latin.

John Joseph "Jody" Ferguson, a longtime computer programmer and talented athlete who regularly ran marathons and enjoyed swimming, died Friday at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center from complications of a seizure suffered last month. The Parkville resident was 39. Mr. Ferguson had suffered a seizure Sept. 15 while swimming at North Arundel Aquatic Center and was unconscious when removed from the pool by lifeguards. He had been in a coma since that time, said his brother, Terence T. Ferguson of Boston.

Frederick Linwood Boone, a retired printer and senior computer programmer, died May 12 of renal failure at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 77. Mr. Boone, the son of a General Electric Corp. worker and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Abbotston Street. As a youth, he was an active member of Third Lutheran Church, where his father was scoutmaster of Troop 77 and where Mr. Boone attained Eagle Scout rank. He later served as scoutmaster of Troop 77. He was a 1950 graduate of City College and served in an Army infantry unit from 1956 to 1960.

Judith C. Gehret, a computer programmer and faculty member at what is now the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose work during her three-decade career produced valuable research assistance for both professors and graduate students, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 2 at her Sparks home. She was 76. Judith Colburn was born in Wilmington, Del., the daughter of Allan P. Colburn, a prominent chemical engineer who had served as acting president of the University of Delaware and was longtime chairman of its chemical engineering department.

Baltimore movie-lovers voiced concern when the Baltimore Museum of Art canceled its free monthly film series. For two years, Eric Hatch, the series' programmer, had put together a lively and original slate that typically attracted 150 to 200 people, including younger audiences new to the museum. But Hatch, 34, will continue to be a key presence on the Baltimore film scene as a programmer for the Maryland Film Festival. And it sounds as if his crusade to bring more variety to local audiences - and more audiences to films of quality - had just begun.

Marcus Henry doesn't have to be a boxer - not with the looks of a model and his job as a computer programmer. But the Parkville resident says he's "in it for the love of the sport," which is why he swaps hours of excellent pay for trading blows during the grueling sparring sessions it takes to be an amateur boxer who travels nationwide and abroad while working toward becoming a professional world champion. U.S. vs. Belarus exhibition Tonight, 8, Michael's Eighth Avenue, Glen Burnie

Graveside services for Douglas H. Carstens, who had been a restaurant manager and computer programmer, will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Loudon Park Cemetery, 3801 Frederick Ave.Mr. Carstens, who was 37 and lived in Snow Hill, died of a progressive neurological disease Saturday at the McCready ,X Memorial Hospital in Crisfield.Disabled because of his illness since the mid-1980s, he had managed the Carriage House Restaurant in Ellicott City during the late 1970s and the restaurant at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club during the early 1980s, then worked for a short time as a computer programmer for Atlantic Information Inc.Born in Baltimore and reared in Ellicott City, he was a 1971 graduate of the McDonogh School and a 1975 graduate of Auburn University.

The first International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme graduating class are being honored during special awards ceremonies at the schools from which they graduated. Last week, members of the IB Class of 2007 from Old Mill High School officially received their diplomas in the school's media center. The IB brass ensemble and other IB students provided entertainment for the event, which included a dessert reception for the graduates and their families. The IB alumni of Annapolis High School will be awarded their diplomas Jan. 3 during a ceremony from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the school's auditorium.