Vice Chairman

The Maryland Republican Party selected an Anne Arundel County veterinarian as its new chairman yesterday as members work to rebuild after a poor showing in November's election. Jim Pelura, a longtime Republican activist, was the state chairman for President Bush's re-election campaign and the Anne Arundel chairman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s campaign this year. He replaces Montgomery County businessman John Kane, who led the GOP for the past four years. Pelura was selected at an annual convention in Annapolis.

Bernard H. Ridder Jr. 85, a third-generation newspaper executive who spent the years after college moving westward to help manage Ridder Publications' new properties and eventually rose to be the company's president and chief executive, died Thursday at his home in San Mateo, Calif. In 1974, Mr. Ridder helped engineer the merger of Ridder Publications with Knight Newspapers and served as vice chairman and chairman of the executive committee of the combined company. Mr. Ridder's two sons, Peter Ridder and P. Anthony Ridder, followed him into the business.

Recently, a Federal judge in Baltimore ruled that a Boy Scout chapter did not have to provide accommodations for its disabled members under the Americans with Disability Act. What has happened the basic Scout tenets, "do a good turn daily, help other people" and the Scout Law "A Scout is ...helpful, friendly, kind ... " Are these no longer the basic creed of Scouting? Benjamin J. Dubin, Baltimore The writer is vice chairman of Baltimore County's Commission on Disabilities.

SAN FRANCISCO -- BankAmerica Corp.'s board yesterday unexpectedly picked the bank's No. 3 executive, Vice Chairman David Coulter, to succeed Richard Rosenberg as chief executive next year.Mr. Coulter, 48, will become president right away and take over the post of chief executive of the second-biggest U.S. bank on Jan. 1.Mr. Coulter's background is in corporate lending and investment banking, and his appointment comes 10 months after BankAmerica bought Chicago-based Continental Bank Corp., making it the leading corporate lender among U.S. banks.

William B. Hendricks, retired vice chairman of the board and general counsel and secretary of the PHH Corp., died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Rockland. He was 73.He retired in 1983, 30 years after he joined the company that provides vehicle fleet, mortgage banking and executive relocation services primarily to businesses.He became secretary of PHH in 1957, vice president in 1958 and senior vice president in 1967. He was elected to the board in 1971 and was named vice chairman in 1976.

John O. Emmerich, 65, president of Emmerich Enterprises Inc., which published 13 daily and weekly newspapers in Mississippi and Louisiana, died yesterday after collapsing outside his house in Greenwood, Miss., upon returning from a morning jog.He was a director of The Associated Press from 1981 to 1990, including one year as vice chairman. During his career, he also worked at The Evening Sun, the Minneapolis Tribune, and the Houston Chronicle, and was president of the Mississippi Press Association.

The chairman and the vice chairman of the company that owns the grocery store tabloids National Enquirer and The Star have expressed an interest in buying the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and keeping the franchise local.Peter Callahan, chairman of the Enquirer/Star Group Inc., and Michael Boylan, vice chairman, met yesterday with Steve Story, one of three trustees brokering the sale of the team for the estate of late owner Hugh Culverhouse.Callahan and Boylan, who are exploring the purchase as private investors, not on behalf of their company, join a long list of potential suitors, including Orioles managing partner Peter Angelos.

Using past practice as a guide, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s board of directors is expected to name its new chairman and chief executive officer today, and the favored candidate is Christian H. Poindexter, 53, the vice chairman of the utility company.George V. McGowan, the current chairman and chief executive, announced at the company's annual meeting April 15 that he would be retiring at the end of the year. His appointment to the position was announced July 17, 1987, five months before he assumed the position at the beginning of 1988.

It looked like a wedding, someone said, the way the seven County Council members, each with a flower pinned to their lapels, posed for pictures after Monday afternoon's inauguration ceremony.The honeymoon ended in just four hours.No sooner had the the newly installed council recited the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of its first meeting Monday night than the bickering began.As its first order of business, the council passed resolutions approving veteran Councilwoman Virginia P. Clagett, D-West River, as chairwoman for a seventh straight year and Councilman David G. Boschert, D-Crownsville, as vice chairman.

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive John Smith Jr.'s salary and bonus increased about 2 percent to $5.66 million in 1996 from the year before.Smith's salary rose almost 17 percent to $1.75 million. The company said it reflected his expanded duties after being named chairman in January 1996. His annual incentive declined 8.6 percent to $1.6 million, while his long-term performance incentive of $2.31 million was almost unchanged.Smith also received options to buy 200,000 GM shares, up from options for 150,000 shares awarded in 1995.