Social Work

A former employee of the University of Maryland School of Social Work committed fraud in misusing thousands of dollars worth of gift cards intended for needy families, according to an internal review forwarded to two state legislative committees. The report, dated June 30, did not detail the employee's actions but says the case was forwarded to the state attorney general's office last month for possible prosecution. The employee, who was not identified, was let go earlier this year.

Janet Virginia Garrity, who enrolled in college at age 47 and went on to earn a master's degree in social work, died of heart disease Tuesday at Brightview Assisted Living in Towson. She was 81 and lived in Salisbury. Born Janet Virginia Green in Baltimore, she was raised on Chesley Avenue in Hamilton and attended Hamilton Elementary School, where she met her future husband, Robert J. Garrity. She was a 1950 Eastern High School graduate but did not pursue a plan to go to St. Mary's College because her father had recently died.

Phillip Parker, 69, social work administrator Phillip Parker, a retired social work administrator and current president of the Maryland Classified Employees Association, died of an apparent heart attack Aug. 25 at his Woodlawn home. He was 69. Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala., he earned a bachelor of arts degree at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and remained active in its Baltimore alumni chapter, where he arranged scholarships for promising local students. He moved to Baltimore in 1960 while serving in the Army, and later earned a master's degree in social work from Howard University in Washington.

The Village to Village Network, a national organization that helps coordinate senior villages, defines villages as "membership-driven, grass-roots organizations that, through both volunteers and paid staff, coordinate access to affordable services including transportation, health and wellness programs, home repairs, social and educational activities, and other day-to-day needs enabling individuals to remain connected to their community throughout the...

Edmond Douglas Jones, a former government social work administrator in the city and Baltimore County, died Wednesday at Sinai Hospital of complications from renal disease. He was 70 and a resident of Emerald Estates assisted-living facility. A Chicago native, Mr. Jones earned a degree in humanities from Loyola University in Illinois in 1954 and a master's degree in social work from Columbia University in 1960. He was chief of special services for the Delaware Department of Social Services before moving to Maryland in 1966.

John Goldmeier, who taught for 30 years at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and helped establish a halfway house for patients at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, died Saturday of myelodysplasia at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 73. The longtime Columbia resident was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of Jewish parents. When the Nazis rose to power in Germany, his parents sent him and his brother to England in 1939. He first lived with a foster family in the north of England until being evacuated when British officials feared the area would be bombed.

Julee H. Kryder-Coe, assistant dean for professional education at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, died of uterine cancer Dec. 31 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Windsor Hills resident was 55. Born Julee H. Kryder in Buffalo and raised in Hamburg, N.Y., she earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Michigan State University in 1970, and a master's in social work in 1979 from the University of Maryland school. She began her career in the 1970s in Buffalo, and completed a field internship in 1979 with the National Mental Health Association in Rosslyn, Va., where she helped institute a housing program giving the mentally disabled access to community-based housing.

Anita Sadler Weiss, a retired Jewish Family Services social work department chief, sculptor and poet, died of cancer Sunday in her Mount Washington home. She was 96. Born Anita Lillie Sadler in New York City and raised on Long Island, she earned an undergraduate degree in English from Cornell University and a master's degree from Columbia University's School of Social Work. She moved to Mount Washington in 1949 and began working at the old Jewish Family and Children's Bureau at Centre and Eutaw streets in 1951.

Abraham Makofsky, a former professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and an advocate for world peace and racial and social justice, died of cancer yesterday at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville. He was 90. "He was an extraordinarily humble human being who was authentically concerned about people, and especially the poor. He had great breadth and scope," said Sister Katherine Corr, executive director of the Baltimore-based Notre Dame Mission Volunteers.

Rachel Tova Minkove, a University of Maryland School of Social Work student who wanted to assist young adults as they fought cancer, died of Hodgkin's lymphoma complications July 29 at her Cheswolde home. She was 28. Born in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Dr. Judah Minkove, an internist, and Judith Fruchter Minkove, a Johns Hopkins Medicine writer and editor. She was raised in Northwest Baltimore and was a 2001 graduate of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School. She then studied a year in Israel at a Jerusalem seminary school.

Rosemary E. Allulis, a lawyer and world traveler who was also a photographer and musician, died Tuesday of liver cancer at her Villa Cresta home. She was 52. "She was a genius. She had a fast mind and was such a good writer," said Sidney Friedman, a partner in the Pikesville law firm of Weinstock, Friedman & Friedman, where Ms. Allulis had worked since 2008. "Whenever you gave her an assignment, she immediately turned it around. She was so good she could have clerked for a Supreme Court justice," he said.

It takes more than guns to produce the increased frequency of mass killings such as the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. ("What must be done," Dec. 26). As a society we are at risk of accepting the lethal combination of firearms in the hands of disturbed and marginalized individuals as the norm. If we are serious in our effort to remedy this rising tide of "random" violence, we must look beyond the proliferation of assault weapons and the policies that enable their ownership. The problem is much deeper than that.

In response to the recent commentary by Howard Alstein ("International adoption, once common, dries up," Nov. 13), the real story about what happened to international adoption is about poverty and the lack of investment in women. Trafficking and the coercion that everyone loves to cite as a root cause for the end of international adoption did not play a large role. The Hague did, however, crush adoption through unneeded bureaucracy. We need transparency to determine orphan status, but what we really need is social work infrastructure to help women get education so that they can keep their children and have healthy families in their own countries.

In his 72 years, Ernest Hawkes has slept in a wide variety of places – military barracks in Vietnam, apartments in Baltimore and New York, homeless shelters. On Saturday evening, Hawkes stretched out on a flattened cardboard box in front of Baltimore's City Hall, resting his head on a black duffel bag. He propped a handwritten sign against a tote bag: "Homeless but not helpless. " "I woke up one morning and I was totally homeless," said Hawkes, explaining that he was evicted from an apartment complex for seniors three years ago after he had a dispute with the management.

Rachel Tova Minkove, a University of Maryland School of Social Work student who wanted to assist young adults as they fought cancer, died of Hodgkin's lymphoma complications July 29 at her Cheswolde home. She was 28. Born in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Dr. Judah Minkove, an internist, and Judith Fruchter Minkove, a Johns Hopkins Medicine writer and editor. She was raised in Northwest Baltimore and was a 2001 graduate of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School. She then studied a year in Israel at a Jerusalem seminary school.

The shad, America's founding fish, has started its annual run up the Chesapeake Bay and into the Susquehanna River, and here in Maryland, Land of Pleasant Living, there's been a run of foolish facts, too. My email box has been full of them lately, a sudden spring run stirred to life by recent columns on Maryland's many millionaires and the wild idea that they should pay income taxes at a higher rate than the rest of us. "Your commentary this...

When L. Francinne Boyle was growing up near a Louisiana town the size of two crawfish laid end to end, she spent so much time in church activities that people said, "Francinne's going to be a minister's wife someday."Her reply: "Why be his wife? I'll be the minister."She did that, but found it wasn't exactly what she wanted. Thirteen years, three children and several postgraduate programs later, the reverend finished a master's degree in social work and began looking for a job.Carroll County General Hospital had an opening and she sought it eagerly.

Ruth H. Young, the retired dean of the University of Maryland's School of Social Work who fought child abuse while promoting the rights of children, died of respiratory failure Feb. 15 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The former Sykesville resident was 86. "She was a real trouper, a role model for women, was a dedicated individual and a free thinker," said Maryland Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp. "She had a strong personality and a very clear vision." Born Ruth Harney in Framingham Center, Mass.

A family of three in Baltimore County needs about $62,000 just to make ends meet, a new report shows. And, without government assistance, minimum wage barely gets them a quarter of the way there. In Baltimore City, that same family of an adult with a preschooler and a school-age child needs nearly $50,000, the report said, for a bare-bones budget. The 2012 Self-Sufficiency Standard, scheduled to be released in Annapolis on Thursday morning, calculates the cost of living for Maryland families based on prices of such necessities as housing, food, transportation and child care.

McDaniel College freshman Caitlyn McSorley has never let her dyslexia get in the way of helping others. Instead, it was the catalyst for doing so. "I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and throughout school a lot of the times I felt I was on the receiving end of help," said McSorley. "I wanted to give back. " And ever since elementary school, McSorley, 19, has found ways to do just that. She's volunteered with Best Buddies, an organization promoting one-to-one friendships for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.