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| People | Places | Phenomenon | Adventures |
2000 Was a Very Full — and a Very Fast — Year.
Before it gets away, here’s a last look at the People, Places, Phenomenon and Adventures of Chesapeake Country 2000
The People of Bay Weekly 2000
Bay Weekly Interview: Annapolis Mayor Dean Johnson
by Christopher Heagy
As mayor of Annapolis, you're leader of much more than a city of 35,000 people. You're making decisions for a daytime population of 55,000 - decisions that affect a metropolitan area of 150,000. On top of that, Annapolis is Maryland's capital. What's your vision for this city, our capital?
DJ The overall objective has got to be balance. That's the real challenge of the job. The city has to be both residential and business. It's got to be both the old and the new. It's got to be both sailboat and powerboat. The moment we lose or significantly upset that balance, we lose the excitement.
The Bird Man of Rt. 665
by Matthew Thomas Pugh
At dawn and sunset, an ominous flock settles into a cluster of barren trees at Aris T. Allen Boulevard and Chinquapin Round Road. Coragyps atratus, locally known as black vultures, turn the neighborhood into a Stephen King smorgasbord featuring raw beef and chicken parts.
They are - and have been for three years - the guests of Bob Williams, 61, known to his neighbors as the Bird Man.
Maryland's Minister of History
Greg Stiverson Wants You to Know All about Maryland - And Love It
by Mary Catherine Ball
Each morning, Greg Stiverson drives from Annapolis into the 18th century at Historic London Town and Gardens. As director of the London Town Foundation, Stiverson works in the past, lives in the present and plans for the future.
Behind Bay Weekly: Who in the World We Are
Seven years ago, on Earth Day 1993, New Bay Times was born in a little town where two creeks slide into Herring Bay and hence to the great Chesapeake Bay. Between Vol. I No. 1 of that fortnightly upstart and Vol. VIII No. 16 of Bay Weekly, dozens of people have put their faith and hope and hard work into bringing you 332 issues of the news you want to read.
Here, in a world where change rules, is who we are on Earth Day 2000.
Sandy Speer Had Our Number
by M.L. Faunce
Alexander 'Sandy' Speer counted heads and more during his 31-year career as Anne Arundel County demographer. He quantified things. "When you quantify things, you can say something is," the recently retired Speer told Bay Weekly.
The Indefatigable Tina Gouin
by Amy Mulligan
You can tell a lot about 34-year-old Tina Gouin just by seeing what's in her truck: Softball, rollerblading and weightlifting equipment, horseback riding gear and a trusty pair of running shoes.
An 86-mile rollerblade marathon is her latest challenge. That's no easy feat, even for a body-building Miss Annapolis
Damian Celebrates 30 Years as Spin Guru
by Matthew Thomas Pugh
If anybody knows good music, it's Damian. For the past 30 years, the man has made music his life. As a pioneering rock 'n' roll DJ, Damian overcame the shadows of death and the ugly leer of discrimination to become an inspiration to radio listeners and musicians across the globe. His dedication to music is legendary. More specifically, local music; homegrown music."
Bay Weekly Interview: A President and Her Students, Jane Margaret O'Brien of St. Mary's College
with Sandra Martin and Amy Mulligan
How do students thrive in your intellectual community of St. Mary's College?
MOB There are two stages in intellectual maturation. The first one is knowledge. The second is creative results, where a person steps out and becomes aggressively involved in their own development.
Most people haven't developed a creative outlet for their knowledge. There's a curiosity that drives them, and in the right environment there's an ambition that drives them. The neat thing is when we first start to see this becoming something real.
Bay Weekly Interview: Donnie Radcliffe: Chronicler of First Ladies
with Sandra Martin with Lori L. Sikorski
As a journalist in the Washington press corps, Calvert Countain Donnie Radcliffe covered First Ladies. From Pat Nixon through Hillary Clinton, she chronicled the lives and times of America's most public, and most second-guessed, women.
As you read Donnie's observations on the last quarter century of first ladies, remember that when you vote for him, you elect her, too.
Smith Building Supplies ~ At the Crossroads
by M.L. Faunce
From his second floor office overlooking Deale-Churchton and Shady Side roads, Jack Smith has a window on the world. Outside is the world you could say he helped build, board by board, nail by nail, in the 49 years he's operated a small lumber and building supply business on six and a third acres in rural Southern Anne Arundel County.
At age 76, Smith is poised to move on.
Lessons from Our Long-Lost Neighbors - The Mystery Tribes of Selby and Little Round Bays
by James G. Gibb
Nomads of the first millennium ad visited the banks of the Rhode River and of other tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay periodically, processing as much oyster meat as they could use or carry, then moving on to some other resource: game-rich forests; narrows of streams where they could net spawning fish; groves of nut bearing trees; marshes with edible roots and meadow edges with ripening berries.
A Maryland Legend - Mudpuppy D and the Red Bird
by Ralph C. Young
Mudpuppy D, an oysterman in his mid-30s, was tonging for oysters in the Choptank River when a large cardinalhopped onto the deck of his boat.
Pray good sir, I am at thy mercie. I feare I can no longer make flighte. Could'st thou provide me saftie from my pursuers?
Mudpuppy D was no stranger to talking animals, having encountered a magic oyster several years back. He was surprised by the dialect, however, which was like the speech of the old-timers on Smith Island.
Watermen Crab on in Hard Times
by Christopher Heagy
This is a tale of two watermen. On Chesapeake Bay, both are living an American dream. It may not be your American dream. It's not the one we see on television. It is a dream as old as the United States, older in fact, back to who knows when. It is a dream of freedom. For these two men, the water was the land of opportunity.
And now in a year when the crabs have all but disappeared, these men keep doing what they know.
Oysters on the Half Shell
by Mark Burns
Them Eastport Oyster Boys - equal parts Jeff 'Jefferson' Holland and Kevin 'Brother Shucker' Brooks - have helped revitalize folk music in Annapolis. They sing the tale of Chessie, a 42-ton Chesapeake Bay retriever with 80-knot breath and a tail that makes wakes six-foot wakes when it wags. The recipe for Mama's beaten biscuits. Three elements to a full Eastportorican life.
Farewells Hank Burroughs
by Thomas Abercrombie
A steadfast friend like Henry Burroughs takes up a lot of room in a person's heart. Hardly surprising mine has been sounding a hollow beat since Hank's quiet passing, at 81, Jan. 14 at his home in Shady Oaks.
Betty Sherwood
by Sandra Martin
Elizabeth Catherine Sherwood's sparkling soul fled with breathtaking speed before work on the morning of January 28.
To reach her car that snowy Friday morning, Betty had to cross busy, three-lane Benfield Road. Apparently dazzled by brilliant sunlight reflected off snow and windshields, she stepped into the path of an on-coming van.
Rob Burnett
by Sandra Martin
Walk the paths of Robert Paul Burnett's life, and you'll tred the many-traveled highways of America's 20th century. From his all-American boyhood in Lanham to his motor-head teens to early manhood in Vietnam, Rob was as much a patron saint of our times as any Beach Boy. By the late '70s, Rob had found the love of his life, Barbara. They went back to the country, restoring the old Lyle Simmons house as their Calvert Homestead
On February 18, cancer took that life.
Purnell Franklin
by Sandra Martin
I learned about tobacco and a good deal more from Purnell Franklin, who opened history like a book. He traced his family to Robert Franklin, who arrived in St. Mary's County from England in 1662. On the very spot we had our first visit, his family had farmed since the end of the Civil War. His history was enlivened by stories of daily life, unreeled from a prodigious memory.
For most of his 83 years, Purnell had plenty of blessings to count
Casper Venter
Casper Venter saw Chesapeake Country with new eyes. Transplanted in midlife from Johannesburg, South Africa, he saw gold where we saw trash. But the recycling entrepreneur had no time to amass a fortune while ridding Maryland of mountains of plastic trash.
Casper Venter died of sudden heart failure March 23, at the age of 56, at home with his wife, Elaine Brennan, in Arnold.
Harry 'Capt. Doyle' Kendall
by Bill Burton
Home is the sailor home from the sea.
And home - not from the sea, but from land - is Harry 'Capt. Doyle' Kendall, 84, whose remains were scattered in the Chesapeake May 1 with four boatloads of fellow charterboat skippers, family and friends For many years, Churchton was his home, but he passed away of chronic leukemia April 27 at Anne Arundel Medical Center.
Musician Craig Carr
by Mary Catherine Ball
With Big Fish, 43-year-old Craig Carr hoped to establish his independence. "I've always played cover songs to make a living," he said. Now, I'm hoping people will regard me more as a songwriter."
Carr played his final performance last Friday evening at Eastport's Chart House Restaurant. In Saturday's early hours, Carr's Jeep struck a utility pole in St. Margarets. Carr died late July 30 at Prince Georges Hospital in Cheverly.
Douglas Dodd
Doug Dodd would have been tearing up rockfish on our Bay Weekly-Bill Burton fishing expedition last weekend - had he not been lured away by the Potomac River.
We missed Doug on our wildly successful day of fishing. Now, we join the Dodd family in mourning him. For Tuesday, October 10, while fishermen on our trip were dining on their rockfish and bluefish and trout, Doug Dodd, 53, fell to a massive heart attack, at his home, with his wife of 33 years at his side.
Capt. Dave Byrd
by Chris Doherty
Dave Byrd had a vision: to combine work with his passion for fishing the Chesapeake.
This spring, Dave reached the pinnacle of his profession: the prize rockfish at the annual Rod 'n' Reel tournament. Then, in September, previously undetected cancer took its swift toll, and Dave was gone at age 53.
William Allen 'Al' Staley Sr.
by Bobby Sturgell
On December 6, 2000, Anne Arundel County lost a good man, who also happened to be my brother-in-law. A 1963 graduate of Severna Park High School, Al Staley was a retired Anne Arundel County policeman who lived in Friendship and spent his later years hanging out with the boys at the Happy Harbor in Deale.
| People | Places | Phenomenon | Adventures |
Copyright 2000
Bay Weekly
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