School Librarian

Sister Mary Germana Strassberger, a retired Mercy High School librarian, died of coronary artery disease Wednesday at her order's retirement home in Pinehurst in Baltimore County. She was 96. Born Helen Adelia Strassberger in Baltimore, she attended the old St. John's Academy and was a 1929 Seton High School graduate. She entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1931 and took the name Mary Germana. She received her bachelor's degree in education at the old Mount St. Agnes College and a master's degree in library science at Villanova University in 1971.

Martha Agnes Gover Bradford, a retired school librarian whose caring and thoughtful nature endeared her to several generations of Baltimore public school students, died Wednesday of progressive supranuclear palsy at Manor Care Health Services in Roland Park. She was 74.Mrs. Bradford began her career in the late 1940s and was the first librarian at Cherry Hill Junior High School when it opened in the 1950s. For more than 15 years, Mrs. Bradford saw to the literary needs of the students at Calverton Junior High School.

John Hampton, 87, attorneyJohn Hampton, a retired attorney who enjoyed woodworking, died of respiratory failure Dec. 4 at home in the Butler section of Baltimore County. He was 87.Mr. Hampton had a general practice with the North Charles Street law firm of Wyman & New from 1934 to 1987, when he retired. He was known for his pro bono work.He was born in Lancaster, Pa., moved to Florida after the death of his father and graduated from Coral Gables High School.He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland and a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1934.

An Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge found four Meade High School students delinquent yesterday on charges stemming from a brawl in September that sent a school librarian to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and left him in need of a cane to walk.Judge Eugene M. Lerner found two 17-year-old twin brothers and a 16-year-old student delinquent --the juvenile equivalent of guilty -- of assault with intent to maim in the Sept. 30 attack on Donald Gobbi, 50, a former Meade High School librarian from Odenton.

An Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge found four Meade High School students delinquent yesterday on charges stemming from a brawl in September that sent a school librarian to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center and left him in need of a cane to walk.Judge Eugene M. Lerner found two 17-year-old twin brothers and a 16-year-old student delinquent --the juvenile equivalent of guilty -- of assault with intent to maim in the Sept. 30 attack on Donald Gobbi, 50, a former Meade High School librarian from Odenton.

At least five students involved in a brawl Sept. 30 at Meade High School in which the school librarian was kicked and stomped won't be returning to the school, Principal George Kispert said yesterday.Two of them are to be expelled, two more transferred to The Learning Center for students with behavioral problems, and one is to be transferred to another high school, he said.Mr. Kispert suspended 18 students. Nine of them were reinstated after signing a contract promising to stay out of trouble.

County police have charged six Meade High School students with taking part in a Sept. 30 hallway brawl that sent five other students, a teacher and the school librarian to the hospital.Two of the six students were charged with the most serious offense given in any of the juvenile citations -- assault with intent to maim -- for allegedly beating the school librarian, Donald Gobbi.The charges were outlined in a news release issued yesterday in which police said they had learned "that racial tensions do exist in the school."

Esther S. Fennell, retired chief cataloger for the Baltimore school libraries, died Thursday of cancer at her home on Gilray Drive.Services for Mrs. Fennell, 76, were to be conducted at 10 a.m. today at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Cedarcroft and York roads.She retired from the school system's cataloging and processing center in 1978, and had started working as an elementary school librarian in Baltimore in 1953.She came to Baltimore from Charlotte, N.C., where she became the first professional librarian in the schools for blacks and started the library system in the elementary schools for blacks.

Services for Marjorie Theresa Woodfield, a retired Baltimore County high school librarian, will be at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at St. John the Baptist Church in Throop, Pa.Mrs. Woodfield, who lived on Kirwin Court in the Revere Park ZTC area of Baltimore County, died Thursday at Stella Maris Hospice after a brief illness. She was 64.She retired in 1989 from Chesapeake Senior High School in eastern Baltimore County.Mrs. Woodfield served in Baltimore County public schools for 27 years. She opened new libraries at Chesapeake Senior High and twice at Perry Hall Senior High, first at the original location and then at its present location.

Elizabeth F. FobesRetired school librarianA Mass of Christian burial for Elizabeth F. Fobes, a retired school librarian, will be offered at 10 a.m. today at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, 101 Church Lane, Texas.Mrs. Fobes, who was 75, died Sunday after an apparent heart attack at her home on Stapleton Court in Timonium.She retired in 1980 from Franklin High School after working there and in other Baltimore County schools for more than 20 years.The former Elizabeth Fischer was a native of Northampton, Mass.

Robert Hallett, a longtime Baltimore County school librarian who invented a spandex-clad superhero to motivate children to read, died Monday of a rare form of leukemia. The Reisterstown resident was 60. Mr. Hallett, who was called Bob when not assuming one of his alter egos, spent much of his more than 30-year career as a library-media specialist at Riderwood Elementary in Towson, where staff, parents and students described him as central to the school's spirit and culture. After his diagnosis and hospitalization several months ago, the community raised funds for his family through "Team Hallett" bumper stickers and wristbands, and gathered in a twice-weekly prayer group.

Joyce V. "Joy" Sackett, a retired parochial school librarian and official scorekeeper for a youth baseball team, died March 25 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Sunrise Senior Care in Severna Park. She was 75. Joyce Virginia Grant was born in Severna Park and raised in West Baltimore. After graduating from Western High School in 1951, she worked as a secretary for Cochran Transfer. After her 1957 marriage to Walter Sackett, she worked for several years as a secretary for a Baltimore furniture distribution company.

Sister Mary Germana Strassberger, a retired Mercy High School librarian, died of coronary artery disease Wednesday at her order's retirement home in Pinehurst in Baltimore County. She was 96. Born Helen Adelia Strassberger in Baltimore, she attended the old St. John's Academy and was a 1929 Seton High School graduate. She entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1931 and took the name Mary Germana. She received her bachelor's degree in education at the old Mount St. Agnes College and a master's degree in library science at Villanova University in 1971.

Franklin High School in Reisterstown marks the start of each school year by ringing a replica of the Liberty Bell. Students buy their lunch at the Kite and Key Cafe, Ben's Bistro or the String Shop. They eat beneath aphorisms, printed on the walls, such as "a penny saved is a penny earned." In the past few weeks, classmates have quizzed each other about the life and legacy of a certain founding father. And today, students and staff will don red, white and blue and enjoy some cake - all to mark Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday.

Linda S. Lotz-Brown, a retired teacher and librarian who late in her life was reunited with her college sweetheart, died of a heart attack Monday at her home in Bozman, in Talbot County. She was 61. She was born and raised Linda S. Evans in Crisfield. As a young woman, she represented her hometown as Miss Crisfield and later was Miss Somerset County. After graduating from Crisfield High School in 1962, she earned a bachelor's degree in art education from what is now Towson University.

Gretchen A. Whitney, a retired Baltimore elementary school teacher and librarian, died of a heart attack Friday at Good Samaritan Hospital. The Northeast Baltimore resident was 88. Born Gretchen Ann Kurtzman in Hibbing, Minn., she earned a bachelor's degree in education from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn. She moved to Baltimore in 1952 with her husband, Ambrose Whitney, a W.R. Grace chemist. He died in 1997. She began teaching fourth grade at Northwood Elementary School in 1954, and after 12 years she became the librarian at Glenmount Elementary.

A West Baltimore elementary school will be closed today amid complaints that a leaking roof is causing mold problems. Officials offered different explanations for why Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary will not be open. Vanessa Pyatt, a school system spokeswoman, said the 400-pupil school will be closed so the library's leaky roof can be sealed off. But officials based at the school said the building is being closed so that city health officials can investigate whether mold in the library has spread throughout the building through air ducts.

Jean Connolly Herlihy, a retired Towson High School librarian, died of cancer Wednesday at a Danvers, Mass., assisted-living home where she had lived for the past two years. The former Homeland resident was 82. Born Jean Connolly in Baltimore and raised on Walbrook Avenue, she was a 1939 graduate of Forest Park High School and earned a degree from the old Mount St. Agnes College in Mount Washington. She worked as an administrative assistant at the Venable, Baetjer & Howard law firm in downtown Baltimore.

Jacqueline Z. Maskell, a retired Calvert School librarian and city school library volunteer, died of cancer Sunday at Brightwood Center assisted-living facility in Lutherville. The former Timonium resident was 72. Born Jacqueline Zeis in East St. Louis, Mo., and raised in Moultrie, Ga., she earned her bachelor's degree in English in 1952 from Goucher College. That year she married Thomas P. Maskell Jr., whom she had meet in 1948 when he was a lifeguard at the Stoneleigh community pool.

Mary E. Ezzo, a retired Baltimore County public school librarian, died Wednesday of complications caused by dementia at North Oaks Retirement Community in Pikesville. The former Sudbrook Park resident was 90. Born Mary E. Ross in Lancaster, Pa., she graduated from Millersville State Teachers College in Pennsylvania in 1934. She was married for 47 years to Stephen A. Ezzo, who died in 1986. She moved to Baltimore with her husband in the late 1930s. She worked at the Glenn L. Martin Co. as an engineering librarian until 1956, when she became a secondary school librarian in Baltimore County.