Quackenbush

On November 29, 2003, HOPE D. QUACKENBUSH (nee Donaghue), beloved wife of the late W. Bruce Quackenbush, devoted mother of W. Bruce, Jr., Scott and Mark Quackenbush, loving grandmother of Sarah, David, Ben, Alexa, Seth and Hannah Quackenbush. A Memorial Service will be held on Monday, December 8, at 4 P.M. at the Mechanic Theater, 1 N. Charles St., Baltimore. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Hope Quackenbush Scholarship at the Baltimore School For the Arts, 712 Cathedral St., Balt., 21201.

On January 8, 2006, A. VERA ROBERTSON beloved wife of Walter J. Robertson, devoted mother of A. Alan Reisinger III, M. D. and his wife Rachelle, step-mother of Robin Quackenbush, grandmother of Jamie Antoinette, Anthony Joseph and Eric Alan Resisinger and Valerie Alexis Quackenbush. Family will receive friends Monday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. at HARRY H. WITZKE'S FAMILY FUNERAL HOME INC., 4112 Old Columbia Pike, Ellicott City, where a prayer service will be held Monday 8 P.M. A Graveside Service will be held Tuesday 11 A.M. at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, with entombment to follow.

CHEVY CHASE - As far as Brian Quackenbush was concerned, the final round of the 75th annual Middle Atlantic Amateur championship at Columbia Country Club yesterday did not begin until the 11th hole. That's when the third-round co-leader trailed comeback artist Pat Tallent by three strokes. But when play ended on a sunny day marked by gusty, swirling winds that sent may scores soaring, Quackenbush had a two-stroke victory. The International CC member from Fairfax, Va., shot the back nine in 2-under-par 33 for a 71 and a 72-hole total of 284. Tallent, from Congressional CC and Vienna, Va., who started the day one stroke off the pace, shot the front nine in 35 - three strokes better than Quackenbush - then went on to finish 72-286.

On August 30, 2004, HUGH H. QUACKENBUSH, Jr., 71, of Glen Rock, PA, who retired from General Instruments in Hunt Valley and was the husband of Dorothy C. (Hoebee) Quackenbush, father of Cathy Haynes, Patty Myers, Ruth Davis, Frank, Charles and Paul Quackenbush, Grandfather to 11 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. A Celebration of Life Service was held on Sunday, September 5, 2004. Memorial contributions in his memory may be made to S.Y.C. Pantry and Fuel Fund, PO Box 83, Glen Rock, PA. 17327.

Hope Quackenbush, former managing director of the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts, will receive the 1994 Achievement Award from the National Touring Theatre Council.The award honors Mrs. Quackenbush for her dedication and contribution to the theater industry. Other honorees include theatrical producers Fran and Barry Weissler and the general management offices of Gatchell and Neufeld.A founding member of the National Touring Theatre Council, Mrs. Quackenbush heads the Friends of the Performing Arts Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to constructing a performance space in the Mount Royal Cultural district.

BETHESDA - Brian Quackenbush and Chris Coyer fired a 6-under-par 65 and opened a five-stroke cushion after the first round of the annual Eastern Four-ball tournament at Congressional Country Club yesterday. Starting at the 10th hole, Quackenbush, a U.S. Amateur contestant and Middle Atlantic Amateur champion from International Country Club in Fairfax, Va., birdied eight straight holes. Then, on the front nine of the 7,245-yard, par-72 course, Quackenbush, 30, birdied Nos. 3, 8 and 9; Coyer took care of Nos. 5 and 6. Tom Riley and Bob Menefee, and George Mavrikes and John Register, each returned at 70, followed by five pairs at 72 in the 61-team field.

William Brewster "Bruce" Quackenbush Sr., a retired Commercial Credit Corp. official and a founding member of the Pride of Baltimore Inc., died of heart failure Wednesday at Mercy Medical Center. He was 73.He was one of the seven founding members in 1980 of Pride of Baltimore Inc. and was a board member and treasurer until 1993, when he resigned because a son, W. Bruce Quackenbush Jr. of Timonium, was made executive director."It was not uncommon to see Bruce in London or San Francisco on the docks, meeting the Pride and its crew, whom he loved," said Christopher C. Hartman, secretary of the Pride of Baltimore Inc. "He gave an enormous amount of time to the Pride in order to make it all work," Mr. Hartman said.

The fine hand of Hope Quackenbush had clearly been at wor when audiences applauded a performance of "The Will Rogers Follies," one of the hundreds of plays and other attractions she brought to Baltimore in her 17 highly successful seasons as managing director of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre.In that time, Quackenbush accomplished what some thought impossible. She sold Broadway road shows to skeptical Baltimoreans. She lured people downtown who otherwise might have stayed home in Pikesville or Dundalk.

Hope Quackenbush, who almost single-handedly turned the struggling Morris A. Mechanic Theatre into one of the country's most popular theatrical touring venues, has announced her retirement. Her 15-year tenure as managing director of the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts ends July 1.Her duties will be assumed by Steven E. Goldstein, the BCPA's current general manager.Speaking from her office yesterday, Mrs. Quackenbush, who will remain on the board of directors, admitted, "I don't want to quit.

Hope Quackenbush is sitting at her desk drawing a picture of the growth rings of a tree. It's an illustration of a comment she made to subscribers in her last letter as managing director of the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts."

HOPE Quackenbush helped turn the lights back on in Baltimore's psyche. She insisted there could be life after death downtown. She turned the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre into a winner, and helped blanket the city's nervous emotional landscape with joyful City Fairs, and years later she said one of the sweetest things I ever heard. "Weren't you worried about that first City Fair?" I asked her one day. "No, no," she said. "We were so anxious for it to be great. All of us were running around and telling people, `Please love us.' We were trying so hard, who could resist us?"

The date was April 16, 1985, opening night for a new musical called Grind at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway. The show had played an exclusive pre-Broadway tryout in Baltimore - one of more than two dozen tryouts Hope Quackenbush brought here during her years as managing director of the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts. Directed by Harold Prince and starring Ben Vereen, Grind, a musical about a Chicago burlesque house in the 1930s, certainly sounded promising. But the show had its problems in Baltimore (beginning with a malfunctioning set)

ON OPENING night at the elegantly restored Hippodrome Theater, there will be a singular voice missing from the audience. When the orchestra strikes up the overture of the rollicking musical The Producers, some in the crowd will recall a producer of a different sort who championed Baltimore to Broadway showmen and playwrights and secured for the city an essential element of a thriving cultural life. As they say in the theater, Hope Quackenbush will be missed in the house. Her death last weekend reminds us of the city's social and cultural transformation over the past four decades and the cadre of people essential to any urban renaissance, whether it's in an aging port city or a classic Southern capital.

Hope Quackenbush, a tireless promoter of Baltimore's downtown renaissance as a founder of the City Fair and longtime director of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, died of dementia Saturday at FutureCare-Cherrywood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Owings Mills. She was 78. Moving to Baltimore from the Midwest in the 1960s, she became a civic activist and city employee and was often credited as one of the architects of Baltimore's rebirth in the next decade - largely through her vision of the City Fair as a showcase of urban diversity.

BETHESDA - Brian Quackenbush and Chris Coyer fired a 6-under-par 65 and opened a five-stroke cushion after the first round of the annual Eastern Four-ball tournament at Congressional Country Club yesterday. Starting at the 10th hole, Quackenbush, a U.S. Amateur contestant and Middle Atlantic Amateur champion from International Country Club in Fairfax, Va., birdied eight straight holes. Then, on the front nine of the 7,245-yard, par-72 course, Quackenbush, 30, birdied Nos. 3, 8 and 9; Coyer took care of Nos. 5 and 6. Tom Riley and Bob Menefee, and George Mavrikes and John Register, each returned at 70, followed by five pairs at 72 in the 61-team field.

CHEVY CHASE - As far as Brian Quackenbush was concerned, the final round of the 75th annual Middle Atlantic Amateur championship at Columbia Country Club yesterday did not begin until the 11th hole. That's when the third-round co-leader trailed comeback artist Pat Tallent by three strokes. But when play ended on a sunny day marked by gusty, swirling winds that sent may scores soaring, Quackenbush had a two-stroke victory. The International CC member from Fairfax, Va., shot the back nine in 2-under-par 33 for a 71 and a 72-hole total of 284. Tallent, from Congressional CC and Vienna, Va., who started the day one stroke off the pace, shot the front nine in 35 - three strokes better than Quackenbush - then went on to finish 72-286.