By Mary Lou Baker and Anne McNulty
In the 18 years that What’s Up? Media publications has been culling and telling the stories of our region and the philanthropic members who enrich it, a singular truth regarding character, values, and morals—and we’re speaking of the good kind—has been the thread that weaves each story into the community whole. That is, goodwill toward others is a learned trait; a legacy philosophy passed down from one generation to the next. Time and again we’ve been told that one’s inspiration for helping others came from their parents, grandparents, or a mentor.
In this issue, we present several “Legacy Families,” who demonstrate that the next generation of do-gooders is as important as those who preceded them. That philanthropy is a legacy worth living, sharing, and continuing, from one anch of the family tree to the next.
The Baldwin Family
By Mary Lou Baker
“The Baldwin family has been giving generously and thoughtfully to the community for three generations,” says Bess Langbein, director of the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County (CFAAC). “They are clearly committed to giving back to the community where they live, making life better for all of us.”
The Baldwin story goes back to Belle Baldwin, who in the 1940s was an active volunteer at what was then known as Anne Arundel General Hospital (now Anne Arundel Medical Center) in downtown Annapolis. Her son, Thomas Ignatius Baldwin, inherited her desire to help others, especially after the birth of a child with developmental disabilities. Tom and his wife Peggy, now in their 80s, shared a vision of a place where people like their son would be given a chance to achieve a sense of self-worth and independence in a society that treated them as “outsiders.”
It was 1961 when the couple assisted in the founding of the Providence Center in Arnold, a place that welcomed children with disabilities and where a small team of professionals treated participants and their families with respect. The Providence Center has grown to include specialized off-site centers that focus on art, technology, wood-working, and pottery making. It is a national model of excellence for its success in elevating the quality of life for its participants and clients.
In addition to the Providence Center, Tom Baldwin served on the Anne Arundel Medical Center’s Board and was the founding member of the Foundation Board. He was instrumental in the relocation of the hospital from its downtown location to where it sits now.
“In 1983, when then-hospital CEO Chuck Brunetto needed to establish a hospital foundation, he turned to local board member Tom Baldwin. Tom then became the ‘father’ of the Anne Arundel Medical Center Foundation—and how fortunate for this community,” says Lisa Hillman, past president of the AAMC Foundation. “What better role model and mentor for the scores of board members and generous supporters who would follow,” she says.
The senior Baldwins’ offspring have followed their parents’ lead in contributing to their community in both funding and service. Jay, president of Reliable Contracting Inc., and his wife Colleen are active supporters of the Providence Center as well as Hospice of the Chesapeake and the Anne Arundel Medical Center Foundation, of which Jay is a Foundation board member.
His other Mike, president of Baldwin Homes, is another supporter of local charities that include Martin Spalding and Indian Creek schools that are attended by his children. Baldwin Homes is a local leader in building structures according to LEED standards. Proceeds from events held at his first model “Green House” in Gam ills were donated to the Mid-Atlantic Make-a-Wish Foundation and Hospice of the Chesapeake. Profits from the sale of that home will also benefit those charities.
Patricia Baldwin, Secretary/Treasurer at Reliable, is the chairman of the board for Anne Arundel Work Force Development, which operates several distinct programs to meet the workforce needs of Anne Arundel County citizens including a youth program which helps young adults prepare to enter the work force.
The Baldwin Foundation has long been a strong supporter of Hospice of the Chesapeake, currently contributing to the construction of a new facility in Pasadena. The Anne Arundel Medical Center, where Christina Baldwin O’Meara was a member of its board of directors, is another longtime benefactor of the family’s philanthropy. Chris also works with Partners in Care and the Hospice Wellness Center.
“Giving is something we do as a family,” Jay Baldwin says. In addition, he and his siblings often take their children to charity events and strive to inculcate in them the importance of using their means and talents in contributing to worthy causes. “Our mother, Peggy, is still very much involved—in fact, she still has the last word on most matters,” Jay says.
The Chaney Family
By Mary Lou Baker
Francis Hall Chaney III, executive vice president of Chaney Enterprises, says that conversations concerning giving back to the community were common around the Chaney family’s dinner table when he was a kid. “I didn’t really listen until I was a teenager, and then I got it,” says the younger Chaney (known as Hall).
Led by his father, Francis Hall Chaney II (known as Frank) those conversations became a reality in the 1980s with the family’s decision to contribute ten percent of its company’s net profit to charitable causes. The senior Chaney, 58, is the company’s Chairman of the Board and gives personal attention to overseeing the family’s philanthropic projects. “As I learned from my father, Babe Chaney, and mother, with her appropriate name ‘Grace,’ I have tried to stress two lifetime goals with my children and all of my loved ones—think of others more than yourself and make this world a better place than it would have been without you.”
Because cancer had claimed the lives of several members of the Chaney family at a young age (Frank was 10 when his father died and the disease killed his other Richard at age 56), the majority of the donations initially went to the American Cancer Society. But eventually the Chaney family decided to focus on ways to improve its local communities and became involved in the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County, a nonprofit organization founded to maximize and manage charitable giving.
The Chaney Foundation began targeting funds to projects in Southern Maryland, where its business is located and many of its employees live. Today, those benefitting from the family’s generosity are residents of Anne Arundel, Calvert, St. Mary’s, Prince George’s, Howard, Queen Anne’s, and Caroline counties. The Foundation also supports nearly 40 other charities, among them the Boys and Girls Clubs of Maryland, the United Negro College Fund, and Anne Arundel Community College. Grants of up to $1,000 are also available for beautification projects in local communities through the Community Foundation of Southern Maryland.
Chaney Enterprises has roots going back more than 50 years to 1962 when a hard-working visionary and entrepreneur named Eugene “Babe” Chaney started a sand and gravel company in Southern Maryland. Still family-owned, the business has evolved into the only construction material manufacturer and supplier from Maryland to win “national annual awards” for:
• The 2013 Most “Caring” Company in the Ready-Mixed Concrete Industry
• The Best Land Reclamation Project for a Mining Operation
In addition to be named one of the “Best Companies to Work for in the D.C. Metro Area” for five years in a row, Chaney Enterprises is also known as one of the region’s most generous and environmentally-aware businesses in the region and a benefactor to residents of Southern Maryland and beyond.
Hall Chaney, 31, helped to found and continues to lead The Next Generation of Philanthropists, an Anne Arundel County-based giving circle hosted by the CFAAC.
Other Chaney family members who share the philanthropic spirit of Chaney Enterprises include Katherine Chaney Flanders, Donna Chaney Bunn, and Rebekah Grace (L.G.) Chaney Lare. In Chaney-language, “giving back” is not limited to monetary contributions but includes nurturing a strong volunteer ethic among its staff.
Bess Langbein has known the Chaney family for eight years—ever since she became director of the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County. She has high praise for the scope of their projects and for their intergenerational commitment to helping others. “They take very seriously their responsibility to give back to others in the communities where they live and work,” Langbein says. “Not only are they philanthropists, they are leaders and role models for others— and do their giving with thoughtfulness, compassion, and humility.”
The Graul Family
By Anne Mcnulty
In a modest shopping center on Taylor Avenue in Annapolis, stands an ordinary looking grocery store until you walk inside.What first catches your eye are the shoppers picking out red peppers, green cucumbers, and yellow squash arranged fastidiously in the vegetable bins. Lunch-rush customers crowd around the deli counters and gaze at an array of cheeses, cold cuts, and prepared salads that tempt the eye and tantalize the stomach. In the bakery, chefs frost cakes and pull fragrant cookies out of the ovens. Clerks greet their regular customers by name as they pile their groceries onto the checkout counters.
It’s the huge black and white photographs (taken by Charles Emery and A. Au ey Bodine), however, lining every inch of the store’s walls, that give this market its special ambiance. Scenes of the Annapolis landscape and its famous landmarks, along with scenes of the bountiful Bay and the graceful curve of the Bay Bridge, imbue this store with the history and essence that is Annapolis.
The Graul family is a part of that history. Its beginning is chronicled with the dominant black and white photograph of the family’s first store that Fred and Esther Graul opened in 1920 on Monument Street in Baltimore. When their son, Harold, returned from the military in 1945, he and his wife, Mary, took over the store.The couple later moved to Annapolis and bought a store in Cape St. Claire in 1958. They then opened the Taylor Avenue location in 1983.
“During those days, we dealt with about 20 different vendors and we picked up the food ourselves,” says Fred, the third generation son. Graul descendents currently own a total of six markets—three in the greater Baltimore area and one in St. Michaels.
Thirty-seven-year-old Bryan Graul is a fourth generation son who has owned the Taylor Avenue store since 2012 after his aunt Susie retired. Since then, he’s completely renovated the store. “I took it down to the walls,” he remarks. He and his father, Fred, now co-own the Cape St. Claire market.
“I started working here as a kid,” Bryan says as his father nods in agreement. Their efforts have enabled their stores to successfully compete with the ubiquitous grocery chains that dominate the food markets.
More important, it has also allowed them to become an essential part of the Annapolis community and to generously support its institutions. “Giving back to the community is something that was very important to my grandfather, Harold. I think he and my father set the example,” Bryan says.
One of their endeavors has been their support of Anne Arundel Medical Center. “They took excellent care of my grandfather before he died of cancer,” Bryan recalls, “and I was born in the old hospital.”
“The hospital board approached me when they were building the Rebecca Clatanoff Pavilion—the birthing building at the medical center. That’s when I first got involved,” Fred says. Since then, this quiet, unassuming man has been a major donor.
“He’s been a donor since 1986,” says Jan Wood, president of the Anne Arundel Medical Foundation and Chief Development Officer of Anne Arundel Medical Center. “He’s one of the leading contributors in the county. It’s tremendous what he’s done for us. It’s never about him.”
The Grauls sponsor the DocsTALK series at the hospital and also help fund the non-profit Dare to C.A.R.E. program that offers free cardiovascular screenings for those over 60 or those with suspected vascular issues.
Once a year, they hold their annual “Graul’s Give Back Day” where a portion of the store’s sales are donated to local charities, and several times a year, a bloodmobile parks in front of the Annapolis and Cape St. Claire stores. All collected blood goes to the hospital. “We have to pay for the blood we get from the Red Cross,” Wood says, “We really appreciate their help with this.”
“Fred is not only willing to give his money, but he also gives his time,” says Kelly Brown, President of the Board of Directors of the SPCA of Anne Arundel County. Both Bryan and Fred are deeply involved with us, and they are also dear friends of ours. “Fred was president of our board for 10 years and he still serves on it.”
The Grauls are animal lovers and there’s usually a Golden Retriever or an Irish Setter in their home plus a few cats. You can find both Grauls at Camp Letts during the SPCA’s annual “August Puppy Plunge” fundraiser where water-loving dogs, pulling at their leashes, leap into the river. The 1,200 or so human attendees are happy to eat the food the Grauls have donated. “We don’t ing our own dogs, because we’re too busy manning our food booths,” Bryan says. In May, during the “Walk for the Animals” fundraiser at Quiet Waters Park, they provide store-made cupcakes, muffins, and coffee.
Both men are also affiliated with the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County, which distributes monies to other charities. Bess Langbein, executive director of the foundation, has known Fred for years. “Fred, who has clearly passed on the spirit of giving to his son, Bryan, is a thoughtful and compassionate philanthropist who continues to make our community a better place. I’m honored to know both Bryan and Fred and partner with them through CFAAC.”
Her organization honored Fred, who often digs deep into his own pockets to give financial help, by naming him the Philanthropist of the Year in 2007.
This generous family has given back so much to the community they’ve been part of for more than half a century. In turn, they have been rewarded with the loyalty and admiration of the citizens who live in this historic and beautiful area.
The Schulz Family
By Anne McNulty
Sonny “Oscar” Schulz sits in a booth in his favorite restaurant, Fisherman’s Inn, which has been a part of the Kent Narrows landscape for 85 years. He also happens to own this restaurant. At age 82, this former Eastern Shore waterman has achieved much. From culling oysters at age 11, so he could help support his widowed mother to owning Fisherman’s Inn, the seasonal Fisherman’s Crab Deck, and Fisherman’s Seafood Market, he and his late wife, Betty, have played an important role in Queen Anne’s County. Their three sons— Andy, Jody, and Tracy—are continuing to do the same.
He hands me a 364-page cookbook compiled by Betty, in which she chronicles the growth of this beautiful area and of the family business. “That book was a heck of an undertaking for her,” Sonny says.
In 1930, Kent Narrows “was just a piece of marsh. Nothing on it but muskrat beds, two small grocery stores, and some oyster houses,” wrote Betty. Her father, known as Captain Alex Thomas, mortgaged 10 acres of this marsh and built a small two-bedroom house, which included a six-table dining room that would serve as the beginning of Fisherman’s Inn. In 1931, her parents opened a seafood packing house and their business began to grow.
Betty took over the restaurant in 1945 when her parents separated. After she and Sonny were married in 1956, they renovated the restaurant several times. “It was old and in bad shape,” Sonny says. “So we finally tore it down. We built the new Fisherman’s Inn in 1971.”
Betty wrote of her husband, “In the late ’60s Sonny wondered if we could take the chance of building a new inn…He deserves most of the credit for our success over the years. We both put in our time and worked together, but he is the one to have foreseen what we needed.”
Nine years later, on a cold December night, the inn exploded in a fiery blaze and burned to the ground. Betty’s collection of French and English oyster plates was demolished, along with paintings, and other memorabilia. All that was left, were twisted remnants of metal and rubble.
“Jody and Tracy belonging to the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department, were there immediately,” wrote Betty. “It was a sad night to see such destruction, with so many of our employees gathered around watching.”
By July 28, 1981, the restaurant was up and running again and in 1991, the Crab Deck and the Seafood Market were added to the business. Then tragedy struck again when the building containing both these businesses, caught fire in 2002, and Hurricane Isabel flooded it in 2003. “A sense of weariness sometimes overcomes you because of the time you put in,” Betty later wrote.
In spite of all these challenges, the family has prospered. “Our biggest achievement was building a business that employs 200 people in the summer and 100 in the winter,” Sonny remarks. Some of his workers have been there for more than 25 years. “We have excellent help here. We treat them like we want to be treated.”
The Schulz’s have also reached out to the community. Sonny has been a Queen Anne’s County Commissioner, a founding member of the Maryland Charter Boat Association, and a member of the Maryland Watermen’s Association. In 2004, the Restaurant Association of Maryland named him as Maryland’s Restaurateur of the Year.
He’s also served on several boards. For nine years he was a member of the Chesapeake College Foundation. “He was very involved and very generous to us,” says Lauren Halterman, Executive Director of the Foundation.
While we discuss the amount of time the family has given to various organizations, Sonny’s son, Andy, joins us in the booth. “We’ve helped so many organizations and individuals,” he says. “We’re quite a presence on the Shore,” his father adds.
His sons, Jody and Tracy, have been longtime members of the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department. Jody is currently president and Tracy is assistant chief. Jody distinctly remembers being at Fisherman’s Inn when it burned to the ground.
They both give of their time, money, and energy and put their lives in jeopardy to do this. Why do they keep doing it? “I don’t know how to quit,” Jody says. He thinks a moment and then says, “It’s been ed into us since birth. We’ve watched my parents all these years—helping their employees and others. We also have an obligation to help.”
Local writer, Brent Lewis, author of A History of the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department, has known and worked for the Schulz family for a number of years. “Jody approached me with the idea for this book,” Lewis says. “He was very supportive of my efforts. They do a lot of stuff behind the scenes.”
Janet Akers, is the Acting Director of Chesterwye, a center for developmentally disabled adults. It has nine residential homes, a day program, and supported employment. This busy lady is also an employee at Fisherman’s Inn and the Crab Deck.
She talks about the annual Christmas luncheon the Schulz’s provide for her Chesterwye group, which feeds about 100 people. “It’s great to see their eyes light up and to see how happy they are,” Sonny says of these disabled adults.
Jody comes to the Center every Christmas and plays Santa Claus. His son, dressed as an elf, came along this past Christmas to assist. “The Schulz’s help us out financially and in kind,” Akers confirms.
Jody also sits on the board of the Kent Narrows Development Foundation. Board chairman, Dick Smith, explains that the foundation’s purpose is to enable the business area that encompasses the Narrows, to continue to grow and prosper. “We all work together to make this area the jewel of Queen Anne’s County,” Smith says, “and the Schulz’s are an integral part of our county.”
There will be another addition to the Narrows when Jody completes building Hyatt Place in 2016, which will be a four-story, 84,000-square-foot hotel and conference center. “We have seven boys coming up in our family—mine and Tracy’s sons—and we’re looking to the future,” Jody says.
The past, however, is still very important to the Schulz’s. In back of the Inn, lies the garden designed by Betty and Sonny. In this tranquil spot, with a waterfall flowing into its pond, stands a granite marker. Placed here by her family, it’s engraved with Betty’s photo and a basket of roses—her favorite flowers.
At her crowded funeral on December 13th, 2011, employees both former and present came to pay their respects to “Miss Betty.” Her oyster plate collection, that she worked to replace and her cookbook give the Inn its special nostalgia. Yet, it’s the growing family she left behind and their continued philanthropy within the community that’s her most enduring legacy.
The Tilghman Family
Photo courtesy of Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum
By Anne McNulty
On a winter’s day I drive up a long snow-covered lane that leads to one of the most famous houses in Talbot County. Its present owner, Richard Tilghman, opens the front door and welcomes me to his home that has sheltered the Lloyd family for more than 200 years. I am at Wye House.
Built by Edward Lloyd the IV, this historic Talbot County landmark stands on a property of 1,200 acres, where generations of Lloyds have lived and passed into history—the most recent being Mary Tilghman, Richard’s mother. As he ushers me into the spacious center hall, which runs the length of the house, he mentions that he’s a 12th generation Lloyd.
While we walk into the recently renovated kitchen with its massive ick fireplace and adjoining ick oven, which date back to 1790, he remarks on the upkeep this house has needed.
“My wife, Beverly, and I moved here full-time from Baltimore eight years ago after I retired from my law practice. We often joked that this property is a nice place to visit but we wouldn’t want to live here. It’s a tremendous amount of work and we try to make it look good, but it’s not for the faint of pocketbook,” he quips as we both settle into comfortable chairs.
Yet he’s proud of this house and of the Lloyd family, who for more than 360 years have been such an integral part of Maryland along with the Tilghmans and Carmichaels—all intertwined in the Lloyd family tree. “We have a family prayer where we say, ‘Lord, don’t let my generation lose it.’”
He tells me that his mother, Mary, donated 400 boxes of Lloyd family records, documenting family and plantation life, to the Maryland Historical Society, now one of the most valuable collections in the state.
He shows me an updated version of one of the estate’s historic cookbooks. As we leaf through its pages, I realize that two cultures—one European and one African-American—concocted the recipes found here, which eventually blended into southern cuisine.
Because this property is such a treasure, the Tilghmans feel they should share it with others. “If it’s a legitimate cause, we should allow it. Any bonafide group who wants to come, we welcome them. We usually have 10–15 groups visit every year,” Richard says.
In addition to touring the property and the family cemetery, visitors can also walk through the Orangery, which is even older than the house. Here, in this early greenhouse, the Lloyds, with the help of their enslaved population, conducted many agricultural experiments.
“The main part was built around 1750 and it’s the last original orangery in America,” Richard says.
The Tilghmans have also opened their property to anthropology professor Dr. Mark Leone and his student group of the University of Maryland’s Archaeology in Annapolis Project. During the last several summers, the team has dug up hundreds of artifacts including the remains of slave cabins and shops along with tools, pottery shards, and cooking utensils.
Found deep in the earth, these remains have enabled their African-American descendants, many of whom still live in nearby Unionville and Copperville, to understand and appreciate the history and culture of their ancestors who once worked on this land.
Harriette Lowery of Unionville is one of these descendants. “We were interested in finding out mainly two things: where did they come from and what was their religion? Because of the West African relics the team found, we learned that they came from West Africa. From the religious objects the team unearthed, we learned that they still practiced their ancient beliefs. So many African-Americans have not had the opportunity to connect with their ancestors and Mrs. Tilghman, by allowing this project to proceed, gave us that opportunity. She made the dead come alive for us.”
The Tilghman family also loaned many of these artifacts to the Academy Art Museum in Easton for its exhibit “Joint Heritage at Wye House,” shown in 2013.
“The family generously loaned us architectural books and drawings, aerial photographs of the property, and recipe books from the former cooks. Original lists of their enslaved workers on the plantation were loaned to us by the Maryland Historical Society. At the exhibition, a searchable online database to research the ancestry of plantation inhabitants was introduced,” says Anke Van Wagenberg, Ph.D., curator at the museum.
“We can’t hide behind a curtain and pretend slavery never happened,” Richard says. “We can’t rewrite history but we can help these Americans. We can help them learn about their heritage.” For this reason, his mother was a member of the Frederick Douglass Honor Society, which commissioned the onze statue of Douglass that now stands proudly on the Talbot County Circuit Courthouse lawn.
Richard enjoys talking about this famous abolitionist who lived here when a small child. “After he became famous, he and his entourage came back to the house in 1881 by way of the Wye River. They walked up to the front lawn where they were greeted by about 100 African-Americans and by my great-grandfather Charles Howard Lloyd. He and Douglass sat on our back porch and drank tea.” Richard raises an eye ow. “I find that interesting since my great-grandfather never drank a cup of tea in his life. I’d bet they were drinking mint juleps.”
Douglass’ descendants still come to visit here when they cele ate their family reunions. Tilghman estimates he’s supported about 50 organizations. “It’s kind of our heritage,” he says. He’s currently chair of the Historical Society of Talbot County and chair of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
Kristen Greenaway is president of the museum and also a personal friend of the family. She and Richard meet every Tuesday morning to discuss museum projects. “We talk through everything,” she says.
“He has a passion for the Chesapeake Bay and the environment. He wants to launch programs for kids which will help develop their skills, and he wants to get them out on the water. His phenomenal knowledge of the Bay area and his commitment to Wye House makes my heart sing. He’s so proud of his heritage.”
His wife, Beverly, serves on the board of the YMCA of the Chesapeake, which oversees all the YMCA’s in the area. Richard says of Robbie Gill who is the Chesapeake’s CEO, “He gets it done and he does it right.”
Gill also feels that way about the Tilghmans. “Beverly’s been on our board for eight years. She’s a tremendous advocate for youth and she helped us start a free two-week summer camp for up to 40 kids. She wants every kid to have an opportunity to thrive. Beverly and Richard are two tremendous community servants and I feel blessed to work alongside them.”
Wye House and the Tilghman family are not only a large part of Maryland history, they continue to make history by sharing their heritage, time, and resources with the people of this state.
