Towson University

TOWSON University wants respect. Unhappy operating in the shadows of Johns Hopkins, Maryland and even Loyola in business education, it is spending the cash to bring in talent and add programs that it hopes will make people take it seriously. It angered Morgan State University officials with plans to offer a master's in business administration program. It unveiled a plan to launch an international incubator that it hopes one day will house start-up companies that do business around the world.

Nancy H. Gonce, a retired Towson University archives librarian, died Feb. 13 of a heart attack at ManorCare Ruxton. The Lutherville resident was 58. Born Nancy Hopkins in Baltimore and raised in Lutherville, she was a 1966 graduate of Dulaney High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from what is now Towson University and a master's degree in library science from Drexel University. She worked at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County library; McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland, College Park; and for GEAC, a library software company, before taking a job at Towson State University's Albert S. Cook Library in 1988.

Hank Levy, a jazz musician hailed as a brilliant composer and orchestrator, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at Oak Crest Village in Parkville, where he had lived the past four years. He was 73. The retired director of jazz studies at Towson University's music department, where he taught for 21 years, Mr. Levy wrote jazz compositions and band arrangements, conducted and recorded extensively. "He was extraordinarily talented. He turned jazz music right around when he started working with time changes," said Audrey Kenton, wife of the late band leader Stan Kenton.

Dr. Bettye Floyd, a former campus counselor upon whom generations of Towson University students came to rely for straightforward advice, died of cancer Feb. 8 at St. Joseph Medical Center. She was 74. Born Bettye Zane Alexander and raised in Kannapolis, N.C., she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and Spanish from Wake Forest University in 1949. She earned a master's degree in counseling and guidance in 1961 from the College of William and Mary, and her doctorate in counseling and human development from George Washington University in 1993.

William F. Pelham, a retired Towson University physics professor who photographed nature and still-life scenes, died of cancer Thursday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Tuscany-Canterbury resident was 79. Born in Queens, N.Y., and raised on Long Island, he earned a degree in chemical engineering at Clarkson Institute of Technology in Potsdam, N.Y. During World War II he served in the Navy, where he worked in an experimental gunnery unit based at Norfolk, Va. After the war, he earned a master's degree and doctorate in science education at Columbia University and simultaneously taught at Manhattan College.

Historic Aigburth Vale in Towson may be rescued yet.A failed proposal by builder Martin P. Azola to redevelop the deteriorating, county-owned villa could be resurrected if the burgeoning Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) at Towson University decides to relocate there."They would be the perfect tenant," Azola said. "The trick is to get them to fit."But the economic research program, which has grown from 23 employees to more than 70 since becoming associated with the university last year, also is eyeing other properties.

Alma M. Morris, a retired administrative assistant and longtime Rodgers Forge resident, died in her sleep Sunday at College Manor nursing home in Lutherville. She was 90. Alma Marie Zimmerman was born in Baltimore and raised in the Hamilton area. She was a 1935 graduate of the old Seton High School in Charles Village. She worked downtown in the business department of S&N Katz Jewelers before her 1938 marriage to Philip K. Morris. In 1942, the couple became among the first Rodgers Forge residents when they moved into a newly built home on Dunkirk Road.

In a week when the Johns Hopkins University announced a 7.2 percent tuition increase - boosting the basic cost of attending one of the nation's finest educational institutions to $33,900 - Robert L. Caret sits in a comfortable chair in his sunny office overlooking the campus of Towson University, a few miles to the north, and smiles. Caret is the president of Towson, and powerful social and economic trends appear to be working in his favor. Towson's tuition is $7,096 for in-state students - a still-affordable number for many middle-class families.

A Walbrook High School teacher who graduated from the school and went on to become Towson University's all-time basketball scoring leader is facing drug charges after 60 grams of crack cocaine were found in his apartment, police said yesterday.Devin Lemuel Boyd, 28, was placed on administrative leave after school officials learned of his arrest in Catonsville during the weekend. School officials said yesterday that they found no evidence that the popular special-education teacher, who was hired in September, had been involved in drug activity at the West Baltimore school.

Mary Lenore Kelly, a retired Towson University staff assistant, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Feb. 22 at Oak Crest Village. The former Rodgers Forge resident was 89. Born Mary Lenore Zimmerman in Baltimore and raised on Bayonne Avenue, she attended St. Dominic's Parochial School and was a 1937 Seton High School graduate. In 1970, after raising four children, Mrs. Kelly began work as an administrative assistant at Towson University. She worked in the physical education, health science, and was later an executive assistant to President James Fisher, and also assisted other officials at the school.