University Of Maryland

I felt as if I had gotten to know two of Maryland's political celebrities, Thurgood Marshall and Lena K. Lee, after spending a few hours this week at the University of Maryland's law library, which is named in the former Supreme Court justice's honor. I'll begin with Lena K. Lee, among the first black women elected to the Maryland General Assembly in the 1960s. Lee, who died at age 100 in 2006, donated her extensive papers to the library, which is making an overview of her life available on the Internet through its African Americans in the Law collection.

The tyke in the Tigers cap drew his foot back, kicked as hard as he could and sent the soccer ball rolling toward the net. Jordan Champion, 3, of Suitland, decked out in a T-shirt that read "A Monster Ate My Socks," didn't seem to care all that much whether his shot eluded the goalie across from him, a 47-year-old physician named Fernando Mena. Neither did Mena, who just happened to let the ball roll through his legs. When the cluster of grown-ups around Jordan burst into applause, it was for his bigger triumph: Like the dozens of other kids and 200 or so parents on hand for a celebration at the Hippodrome on Saturday, he spent his first few weeks clinging to life in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, of University of Maryland Medical Center.

Police seek man who robbed jewelry store Baltimore County police continue to seek a man who robbed a Catonsville-area jewelry store of more than $20,000 worth of jewelry Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after 5 p.m., a man entered House of Time in the 5600 block of Baltimore National Pike in the Ingleside Shopping Center and asked to see some rings, police said. After an employee placed a display case containing an assortment of jewelry on the counter, police say, the man, who was trying on rings, suddenly reached into a pocket and made a motion as though he was armed.

In its earliest days, Jordan Hadfield's a cappella group recruited a member from the laundry room in a University of Maryland, Baltimore County dorm. Since then, Mama's Boys, formed by Hadfield and three other freshmen in 2003, has evolved from a loose crew of guys to a polished group of performers selected through a competitive audition process. The chorale has sung before an Orioles game, opened for comedian Lewis Black, musician Gavin DeGraw and earned a batch of Rice Krispie treats from a fan on the Ocean City boardwalk.

Maryland colleges and universities ended a strong fundraising year with a pair of billion-dollar campaign announcements from the University of Maryland, College Park and the Johns Hopkins University, and a flurry of major gifts that included $50 million to Hopkins and $5 million to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. But in addition to sharing seven figures, the gifts making headlines in recent months had something else in common: Virtually all were made by friends and foundations, not former students of the receiving institution.

James Yager, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, has been named the Edyth H. Schoenrich Professor in Preventive Medicine. A professor of toxicology in the department of environmental health sciences, and an expert on the mechanisms of estrogen carcinogenesis, Yager focuses his research on the genetic and environmental susceptibility factors related to breast cancer. Yaeger's professorship is named in honor of Schoenrich, credited with developing one of the nation's premier preventive health programs at Bloomberg.

Stefan E. Martin, a former English teacher and linguistics scholar who was also skilled at fixing cars, renovating houses and working with computers, died Aug. 6 at his Dublin, Calif., home of mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He was 53. Born and raised in Baltimore, he was the eldest of nine children. His father worked as a longshoreman at the port of Baltimore. Dr. Martin lived in Baltimore until 2000, when he and his wife of 10 years, Jeannine Broadwell, moved to Northern California.

Elizabeth M. Crassweller and Kristopher A. Weaver were married in Havre de Grace on June 2, 2007. Nitin Jagdish officiated. The bride is the daughter of Maj. USA Ret. Mark and Elizabeth Crassweller of Elkridge, Maryland. The parents of the groom are Shirley and Jim Grattan of Knoxville, Maryland, and Allen and Jennifer Weaver of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The bride was escorted by her mother and father. Gina Fidazzo, friend of the bride, was the best woman and Young Hwang, friend of the groom, was best man. The ceremony and the reception were held at the Vandiver Inn in Havre de Grace.

Awards Susana SaCouto, Leslye E. Orloff and Patricia Chiriboga-Roby were honored for their work in the advancement of women's legal rights by the Women's Law Center of Maryland. Joseph M. Oddis, president of Harbor Hospital, was presented with the CEO Quality Improvement Leadership Award by the Maryland Healthcare Education Institute in conjunction with the Maryland Hospital Association and the Delmarva Foundation. The Health Facilities Association of Maryland honored several professionals and advocates in long-term health care.

Masculinity of dance The lowdown -- It's a man's world at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County this week. The Edgeworks Dance Theater all-male ensemble will present "Project: Cold Case," an installment in the company's Negro Dance Theater Project. The predominantly African-American ensemble hopes to draw its audience out of prejudice and fear by exploring black masculinity and identity on stage. If you go -- The performance starts at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Theatre, 1000 Hilltop Circle.

Maryland's public university system is poised to become the first in the country with a policy on student displays of pornographic films, a direct response to legislative demands made after a screening earlier this year of a XXX-rated film at the University of Maryland, College Park. Though work on the policy is continuing, it has stirred many of the same free-speech concerns that raged when the university briefly quashed student plans to screen the pornographic epic "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge" in April.

Et cetera Senior starting forward Liles no longer on Maryland team The University of Maryland women's basketball team has announced that starting senior forward Dee Liles is no longer with the program. Liles, who averaged10.6 points and led the Terps (31-5) in rebounding (9.0 a game), blocked shots (1.7 a game) and field-goal percentage (.521). will remain enrolled this semester. "We enjoyed having Dee as part of the Maryland basketball program," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. "We wish her all the best in the future."

No raises for fire union members, Dixon says Baltimore City fire union members will not receive the pay raise that they'd hoped for, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon announced Thursday. The unions had been unable to negotiate a contract with the city and argued before an arbitrator that they should receive a 2 percent pay increase this year. The arbitrator ruled against the unions. "We not only lost, we got killed," said Capt. Stephan Fugate, the head of the fire officers' union. The city also has asked the fire unions to make current year reductions, and Fugate said that the arbitrator's decision means it is more likely that his union will negotiate those reductions with the city rather then seeking arbitration.

Russell Kirk Agnes September 24, 2009 after a year battle with head and neck cancer. He is survived by his wife Michele Anne Agnes, two children Brooke Elizabeth Agnes and Timothy James Agnes. His parents Joe and Susan Agnes, one brother Peter C. Agnes and grandmother Virginia Pigott. A memorial service will be held Saturday 1:00 P.M. at DONALDSON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY, P.A., 1411 Annapolis Road, Odenton, Maryland. Interment private. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to University of Maryland, Dr. Robert Ord, 650 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, Attn: Debbie Wojcik

Clinton McCracken and Carrie John knew all about addictions and obsessive behavior. Both worked as postdoctoral research fellows at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and earlier this year published their conclusions from a study of "compulsions and habit formation." But their research might have taken too personal a turn. John, 29, a Wake Forest University graduate with a doctorate in physiology and pharmacology, died Sunday after apparently injecting herself with what McCracken called a "bad" batch of buprenorphine, a narcotic known on the street as "bupe" and commonly used to treat heroin addiction.

Dr. John Miller Hyson Jr., a retired dentist and former director of archives and history at the National Museum of Dentistry at the University of Maryland Dental School and an author who wrote widely on the history of dentistry, died Saturday of a stroke at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Timonium resident was 81. Dr. Hyson, the son of a dentist and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Ellerslie Avenue. After graduating from Loyola High School in 1945, he attended Loyola College for a year before transferring to the University of Maryland Dental School, from which he graduated in 1950.

City police were investigating four shooting incidents that occurred over the weekend, one of them a double shooting. None was fatal, and no arrests had been made. The latest occurred about 1:35 a.m. Sunday in the 2500 block of Hollins St. Southwestern District police arriving at St. Agnes Hospital said a man, 28, was shot in the back in an apartment on Hollins Street but refused to cooperate with investigators. He was expected to survive. About 8 p.m. Saturday, a man, 26, was sitting on the front porch of a house in the 2800 block of Boarman Ave. in northwest Baltimore with other men when someone fired a shot hitting him in the shoulder.

Emory G. Evans, a noted professor of Colonial American history at the University of Maryland, College Park, who wrote widely on the subject, died Sunday of a heart attack at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. The Beltsville resident was 81. Dr. Evans, the son of a Methodist minister and a homemaker, was born and raised in Richmond, Va. He was a graduate of Amelia High School in Amelia, Va., and earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1950 from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. After serving in the Army, he earned a master's degree in 1954 and a doctorate three years later in Colonial American history from the University of Virginia.

His friends, relatives and fellow inmates have been calling Mark Farley Grant by his middle name for years. When he wrote to me last month from Hagerstown, he signed off that way. Monday morning, when I met him in the noisy visiting room of the old state prison there, I called him Farley, too. Farley Grant has been incarcerated since his arrest in January 1983. His mother used to visit him regularly, but she died a few years ago. His older brother died last year. A sister comes now and then, but she has been ill of late.

Against the backdrop of the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore, Maryland authorities on Monday signed a first-ever bicoastal agreement with the state of California to enable hundreds of scientists funded by agencies in each state to pool their scientific talents and hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants. "By forging collaborations with California, we can create together intellectual powerhouse teams to accelerate the search for cures and ... therapies for the benefit of people across the country and around the world," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, who witnessed the agreement signed by the Maryland Technology Development Corp.