Napoleons
Biographies
_______________
Page 5
John S. Burgan – CLXXI
John Sydney Burgan was born September 25, 1930, in Baltimore. After serving in the U. S. Army in the Korean conflict, he received his B.A. in history from Johns Hopkins University in 1957. That same year he began his association with the Enoch Pratt Library as a young adult assistant. He took a hiatus from the Pratt to become a senior then principal librarian at the Linden NJ Public Library before returning to Baltimore. He served as adult services librarian at the Catonsville Branch before resuming his employment at the Pratt Library in 1963 where he served in a number of posts. In 1973 he was appointed the Central Library Chief. During his time there he was active in the Maryland Library Association, acting as president 1970-71, and chaired the American Library Association’s Reference Services Division. He was a member of the H.L. Mencken Society and the Johns Hopkins University Alumni. In 1984 he became chief librarian and director of the Hartford (CT) Public Library.
Burgan died on July 9, 1991, in Hartford CT. His obituary noted “he was strongly in favor of removing every obstacle between a reader and his book.” In his honor, all of the Hartford public library sites were closed for three hours during Burgan’s funeral.
(Julie McKuras)
Dr. Robert S. Burke – CLXXII
Michael P. Wiley – CLXXIII
Dr. Billy E. Ross – CLXXIV
Billy Eugene Ross was born November 1, 1924, in Ripley, West Virginia. He enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving from June 1943 until March 1946, and was the recipient of a bronze star and two Purple Hearts. He received his B.S. in Social Studies at West Virginia Tech, his M.S. in Education and History at Marshall University, and then taught at public schools in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Cumberland College in Williamsburg KY. In 1962 he received his Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Tennessee and was named an instructor in social studies and education at the University of Tennessee College of Education. Five years later he was named chairman of the division of education and psychology at Glenville State College. His last post was at the University of Delaware where he held positions as a professor, dean and then administrator, and with two associates developed an “innovative doctorate program in education leadership.” He retired in 1989 and moved to St. Augustine, FL. In retirement was active in his church, “served as president emeritus of the EMMA Concert Association, as a member of the Health and Human Services Advisory Council, and as a member of the Post Office Advisory Committee.”
​
In addition to the Six Napoleons, Ross was a member of the Maiwand Jezails, the Sons of the Copper Beeches and in 1977 received the investiture of “The Abergavenny Murders” from the Baker Street Irregulars. Ross died January 28, 2008 in St. Augustine, FL
(Julie McKuras)
​
James T. Elliott, Sr. – CLXXV
​
Christopher Dickerson – CLXXVI
Christopher Paul Dickerson was born December 27, 1954 in Baltimore MD. He studied English and History at the University of Maryland. He was a “Baltimore native who today makes his living as a freelance writer and part-time teacher in the public schools” who “has written a lot of fiction (in addition to having sold stories to newspapers and magazines around the country)” including the Baltimore Sun. Dickerson was also involved with the theatrical world. He founded the Baltimore Playwrights Festival in 1982 and was an actor and a playwright.
(Julie McKuras)
Richard Hill – CLXXVII
Richard Hill was born January 17, 1947 in Baltimore City. After graduating from High School in 1964 Hill joined the Navy, serving for 6 years and came out as an E5. Getting his Stationary Engineers license in 1970, he then worked in Heating/Air Conditioning for several years. Hill attended part time at the Community College of Baltimore from 1971-2 and in 1975 Hill became a state employee as a Stationary Engineer in the Division of Corrections, retiring in 2005 as the head of Maintenance Department facility.
​
After retirement, Hill started working at the Maryland Zoo in 2006 and retired in 2012, driving the Tram, the train and operated the Carousel, and provided supplemental maintenance on all three.
​
Hill discovered Sherlock Holmes by reading his father’s books at the age of 14 and joined the Six Napoleons in 1982, becoming Commissionaire in 1999-2001 and Gasogene 2001-3. In addition to Sherlock Holmes, his hobbies were flyfishing, wood turning and lapidary.
Dr. James E. Smith II – CLXXVIII
James E. Smith, II, M.D., was born October 19, 1922. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was discharged as a corporal in December 1946. Trained as a psychiatrist, in the 1950s he began his career as the “assistant medical officer for the Supreme Bench” while also working as a “staff psychiatrist of Patuxent Institute for defective delinquents.” His interests included doing crossword puzzles, the opera, classical music, and the Baltimore Orioles.
​
Smith was instrumental with the Napoleons’ annual school essay contests. He was a frequent speaker at the annual Pratt Library’s Saturday with Sherlock Holmes and also gave other talks such as the 1987 presentation at Goucher College’s “Who Done It?” symposium for mystery fans. He was also member of the Carlton Club and Watson’s Tin Box. In 1998 he received the investiture of “Winner of the Jackson Prize” from the Baker Street Irregulars.
​
Smith died December 24, 1998 in Brunswick, ME. His memorial service was held at the Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, the same church he attended and was a choir member during his years in the city.
(Julie McKuras)​
John M. Howard – CLXXIX
​
​
​
​
Robert G. Doerfler – CLXXX
Robert Gerard Doerfler was born November 9, 1928, in Baltimore. After graduating from high school, he was a member of the National Guard from June 1948 through June 1953. He worked for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. as a financial auditor and later graduated from Johns Hopkins University with an accounting degree. In 1955 Doerfler joined Pacific Mutual Insurance as an agent before receiving “his chartered life underwriter degree from the American College of Underwriters in 1966.” He was a longtime member of St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church in Mayfield, served on their finance committee, was a head usher and a charter member and one-time Grand Knight of the Little Flower Knights of Columbus. He served as Gasogene of the Six Napoleons.
​
In addition to working with a Boy Scout Troop at the Shrine of the Little Flower, Doerfler was active in a number of youth sports, coaching “his children in baseball, softball and soccer, and coached junior varsity and varsity soccer at Archbishop Curley [High School]. He was also instrumental in establishing the soccer program in 1982 at Mercy [High School], where he also coached the varsity softball team.” He was named 1991 Coach of the Year for softball and for soccer in 1994 and is remembered at Archbishop Curley for taking the team to Europe and for helping in organizing and coaching the Women’s Soccer Club team, the forerunner of Loyola’s varsity soccer team. He was co-founder and president of the Father’s Club at Mercy and chair of tuition, finance and the membership committees at Archbishop Curley. Doerfler died October 10, 2013, in Baltimore.
(Julie McKuras)
James H. Arva – CLXXXI
James Hamilton Arva was born September 12, 1945, in Harrisburg, PA. He was an industrial trainer and technical writer at York International for twenty years and later moved to Case-New Holland. A member of the Six Napoleons for thirty years, he served as Commissionaire 22, Harker 5, and Gasogene 24. Arva was known for visiting “Napoleons who were unable to attend meetings because of illness and old age, making a three-hour round trip between his home in Harrisburg and Baltimore.” He created and edited the Napoleons’ newsletter. He was a frequent speaker at the Saturday with Sherlock Holmes events at the Enoch Pratt Library, missing only one year between 1989 – 2011. He also contributed an essay about “nine dramatizations” of “The Six Napoleons” in The Napoleon Bust Business Again, 2004, edited by William Hyder.
​
He was a member of the White Rose Irregulars, Denizens of the Bar of Gold, the Regency Irregulars, and the Master’s Class of Philadelphia. Arva died March 1, 2016, in Harrisburg, PA. Noting his passing, William Hyder wrote “He was a deacon of his church and a man of many interests, including railroads, old-time radio and cookery.”
(Julie McKuras)
Allan DeGray – CLXXXII
Allan Dickson DeGray, Jr. was born April 11, 1932, in CT. He graduated from college in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree and in 1956 reported to Fort Knox KY for his six month active training before being assigned to reserve units to complete military service. He was a mathematician for the U.S. Government and later moved to Baltimore. DeGray was a Master Gardener and volunteered at the Cylburn Arboretum. He died February 2, 2021.
(Julie McKuras)
William R. Mitchell – CLXXXIII
Donald Friedmann – CLXXXIV
​
​
​
James S. Salkin – CLXXXV
James S. Salkin was born December 16, 1942. He attended the University of Baltimore and after his graduation went into law practice. In 1972 he became a member of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and prosecuted a large number of cases. Fifteen years later he opened the law office of James S. Salkin and changed his focus to acting as a defense attorney. He was also a member and Worshipful Master of Amiable Lodge No. 25 A.F. & A.M. Salkin died March 21, 2021, in Baltimore MD.
(Julie McKuras)
Stephen H. Winer – CLXXXVI
Stephen Henry Winer was born December 12, 1945. A graduate of Baltimore City College, he attended Johns Hopkins University where he was active in Tau Epsilon Phi and graduated in 1966 with a major in French. He was a member and Worshipful Master of Amicable Lodge No. 25 A.F. & A.M. The June 1989 Baker Street Journal carried the report that Winer had attended the Six Napoleons meeting having “traveled from his new home in Maine to be present.” In August 1989 he was named the Master of the Cormorants I for the new society The Politician, the Lighthouse, and the Trained Cormorants of the State of Maine. Winer died April 25, 2012, and is buried in Baltimore.
(Julie McKuras)
D. Kemater White, Jr. – CLXXXVII
White received his first copy of The Complete Sherlock Holmes as a 16th birthday present during the first Nixon administration and has been an avid Sherlockian ever since. He learned of the Six Napoleons of Baltimore at their very first Sherlockian weekend held at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore on 11 October 1980, and having newly arrived in Maryland, young (only 25), and looking for something interesting to do, The weekend fit me to a tee. The presentations and puns were all outstanding. Phil Sherman, Marshall Pinnix, Dan Thomas, Ralph Edwards, and other Napoleons were all on hand to present. White was thrilled to discover that Baltimore had an active scion that would have someone like him as a member, and started participating in meetings and presented his learned paper on the musical genius of Holmes on 12 December 1983. Needless to say, White was very pleased to become a member of such an august scion.
​
White is a founding member of Watson's Tin Box in Howard County, Maryland, and served as Gasogene I of that scion in 1990.
Albert W. Baker, III – CLXXXVIII
​
​
​
Norman E. Cohen – CLXXXIX
Charles A. Roberts – CXC
Scott Bond – CXCI
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1942, the artist that Scott was to become had little idea that he was landing in the middle of the now fabled Golden Age of Comics (late 1930s to early 1950s). At about the age of three, his mother and grandmother began bringing me Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories from the local variety store, instantly becoming a lifelong fan of the 10-page Donald Duck adventures written and drawn by his favorite cartoonist, the great Carl Barks. He immediately took up paper, pencil and crayon and a budding career was born. By the time Scott reached North Plainfield High School, he had also discovered Mr. Sherlock Homes, in the person of Basil Rathbone, and in the original stories, which also became a life-long interest. After graduating from NPHS, Bond began the study of Art History at Drew University in Madison, NJ. as an academic assistant to Prof. Elizabeth P. Korn. Once he graduated in 1965, Scott moved to Philadelphia where he began interviewing for a position as a novice advertising art director.
​
After finally being hired by the Aitkin-Kynett advertising agency Scott learned that there was a social side to Sherlock Holmes fandom. This took the form of what was called a Scion Society, some of which were coed, and some of which were male or female only. They featured a variety of activities including dinners, cocktail parties, scholarly papers, quizzes, guest speakers and so forth. Scott joined the Six Napoleons of Baltimore and happily became Napoleon 191, later becoming active in both Philadelphia scions, the Sons of the Copper Beeches and the Master’s Class, and served as the Son’s Recorder of Pedigrees (secretary) for 20 years and provided a variety of artistic works for both Scions. Scott also met his wife, soon to be known as Sherry Rose-Bond, at the Master’s Class and, before too long, they would both become fully invested members of The Baker Street Irregulars. In 1982, Scott began a full page cartoon series, entitled “Art in the Blood”, for The Baker Street Journal and also began doing covers for another well respected Sherlockian journal, the Baker Street Miscellanea. Soon more opportunities arose, including a regularly featured column in The Armchair Detective magazine, hosting two Sherlockian-themed field trips to England and Switzerland, and designing and illustrating the annual BSI dinner menu. In 1984 Sherry and Scott, along with our friend Dr. Bob Katz founded The Clients of Sherlock, a new Philadelphia scion which we continued when we moved to Columbus, Ohio in 2001. Scott received the investiture of “The Copper Beeches” from the BSI in 1983. Bond, died suddenly, on November 13, 2025 after dealing with the effects of Alzheimer's Disease for almost a decade.
​
David Bradshaw – CXCII
Earl G. Delarue – CXCIII
Earl George Delarue was born July 29, 1939 in New York, NY. A veteran of the U.S. Marines during the Vietnam War, he graduated in 1965 from Miami University where he majored in French. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 1974 and went on to teach Languages including Latin at the school. After teaching at Cornell and in Baltimore, he attended the University of Maryland Law School. He graduated in 1983 and opened a law practice in Timonium.
​
Delarue was a frequent participant at meetings of the Six Napoleons where he often presented toasts, attending in a wheelchair in his later years. He died on October 8, 2012.
​
Donald Jewell – CXCIV
Donald Girard Jewell was born in Maryland. A talented photographer, an exhibition of his nature photography titled “A Last Look at Summer” was featured at the Maryland Science Center in 1979. A member of the Oxbridge Scholars of Baltimore as well as The Six Napoleons, Jewell is the author of the Sherlock Holmes Natural History Series which includes A Trout in the Milk: A Monograph on Fish and Fishing in the Time of Sherlock Holmes (1991); A Few Hours to the Birds: A Monograph on Birds and Birding in the Time of Sherlock Holmes (1991); Canonical Cats: A Monograph on Felines in the Time of Sherlock Holmes (1992); A Canonical Dog’s Life: A Monograph on Canines in the Time of Sherlock Holmes (1993); Butterflies and Blind Beetles: a Monograph on Insects and Insect Collecting in the Time of Sherlock Holmes (1993); The Botanical Holmes: A Monograph on Plants in the Time of Sherlock Holmes (1995); Horses of Different Colors: A Monograph on Horses in the Time of Sherlock Holmes (1995). He also contributed several pieces to the Sherlock Holmes Journal, “The Botanical Holmes” in Summer 1989 and “The Curious Incidence of Watson’s Billiard Playing” in Winter 1991.
(Julie McKuras)
Philip Wilson – CXCV
Philip Kevin Wilson is a native of Wichita. He received a B.G.S. from the University of Kansas in 1983, his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1987, and his Ph.D. from the University of London in 1992. He was an oral history researcher in Wood’s Hole, MA and then took on a series of academic postings at Park College, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Truman University, Shimer College, and the PA State College of Medicine’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, on subjects such as the history of science and life sciences, biology, and was a medical historian and associate professor of humanities. Wilson has lectured at Yale University, University of Hartford and University of New Haven, Imperial College of Science and Technology (London), Michigan State University, and Grinnell College among them. Wilson has also been a biomedical and health editor of Encyclopoedia Britannica. He is the author of numerous academic papers related to his field and among his books are Chocolate as Medicine: A Quest over the Centuries (2015), Midwifery Theory and Practice (2018), Childbirth (1996), and Surgery, Skin and Syphilis (1999). Wilson is a member of a number of scientific societies and the recipient of various academic awards and honors.
​
His essay “Holmes in America” was included in William Hyder’s Sherlockian Saturdays at the Pratt and according to his biographical essay for Encyclopoedia Britannica, he has had articles printed in the Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society and Baker Street Miscellanea. In 2012 he was awarded the Read Award from Penn State College of Medicine. He cited The Complete Sherlock Holmes as having special meaning for him as Holmes is “a keen observer of detail – [with] astute analytical reasoning – brilliant flashes of detection; all of these qualities provide the platform for successful detective work, medical practice, and lifelong learning.” He added that “Dr. John Watson, whose gentle and humanistic ways complete the package necessary for turning clues to cures.”
(Julie McKuras)
Stephen J. Cribari – CXCVI
Stephen J Cribari is a former lawyer and law professor who twice argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. He joined The Six Napoleons in the 1980s when he was Deputy Federal Public Defender for Maryland. He has since taught evidence, criminal law and procedure, the protection of art, artifacts, and cultural heritage, and “Lawyers in Film – how Hollywood influences society’s expectations of lawyers and the legal system” at various law schools, retiring at the end of 2018 from Notre Dame Law School where he taught at both its Indiana and London campuses. His poetry and plays have found their way into print and onto the theatrical and operatic stage in the United States and abroad. He resides in Minneapolis. His verse-novella Still Life is published in 2020 by Lothrop Street Press.
​
Julius Eldridge – CXCVII
Julius W. Eldridge was born August 15, 1936, and attended school in Baltimore. A 1970 Evening Sun article noted he was the Speakers bureau chairman, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He served for a number of years as the president of C.B. Moore Lodge No. 176, and also as president of the Evergreen Community Association. In 2007 he ran for a Northwest Baltimore City Council seat.
(Julie McKuras)
T. Michael Kaylor – CXCVIII
Michael Kaylor grew up in the Boston area. He has a B.A. in English from Eastern Nazarene College and studied the History of the Book and Book Arts in the Graduate program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Kaylor is a master printer and in addition to teaching at the Gunston School, he has taught Letterpress Printing and Book Arts at Washington College for over 30 years. He opened the Literary House Press in 1986. Kaylor ran the Blue Carbuncle Press and was a member of The Sussex Apiarist Society. He received the investiture of Practical Handbook of Bee Culture from the Baker Street Irregulars in January 1987.
(Greg Ruby)
Steven Rothman – CXCIX
Steven Rothman discovered that at heart he was a Sherlockian when with great amusement William Baring-Gould’s Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street. Thus, vaccinated by canonical scholarship at the tender age of 12, he was destined to become an Irregular. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he soon discovered that his other love in literature, Christopher Morley, was entwined with the BSI. In 1990 he edited The Standard Doyle Company: Christopher Morley on Sherlock Holmes (Fordham University Press). He received the investiture of “The Valley of Fear” from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1986 and his long association with the BSI includes editing The Baker Street Journal since 2000. He also serves on the boards of several libraries.
(Julie McKuras)
Marshall S. Berdan – CC
Marshall S. “Mike” Berdan, was born and raised in Ohio, earned his B.A. in English from Stanford University in 1977 and his M.A., also in English, from the University of Texas in 1980, and began his working career as a high school English teacher. After a year in Sweden as an in-house corporate communications editor, he relocated to the Washington, DC area where he found similar work for a public relations firm and several environmental “think tanks.”
​
Unlike most, Mike didn’t discover his passion for Sherlock Holmes until after college and then primarily by way of his affinity for Victorian fiction. The hook was more firmly set in Williamsburg in June of 1987 when he attended what turned out to be John Bennet Shaw’s final Sherlockian symposium. It was there that he was lured to join the Six Napoleons by Bob Katz. Mike was invested as Napoleon CC in December of 1987, and in 2002, he took over for Bill Hyder as emcee of the annual Saturday with Sherlock Holmes at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
​
His relocation to Connecticut in 2003, however, compelled him to both relinquish that role and become a “corresponding member” of the Six Napoleons. In 2007, he was invested in the BSI as Henri Murger, and in 2010, he, along with Greg Darak, took over the reins of the Men on the Tor, Connecticut’s statewide scion. A member in halfway decent standing of nine scions, Mike is also the author of more than 30 published works of Sherlockian scholarship, most of them in The Baker Street Journal, including “Holmes Alone,” the recipient of the 2009 Morley-Montgomery Prize.
​
Timothy M. McLaughlin – CCI
Timothy M. McLaughlin received his B.S. from the University of North Carolina. A member of the United States Navy, Lt. Commander McLaughlin served in the Department of Seamanship and Navigation at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD for some years including the mid 1980s.
(Julie McKuras)
Arthur Hixon – CCII
Arthur Edwin Hixon was born May 15, 1939, in Philadelphia. He “served in the U.S. Army during the early years of the Vietnam Conflict. In his tours of duty, he served in both the 82nd Airborne Division and a Special Forces group known as ‘BRAT’. The Beach Reconnaissance Amphibious Team.” After his active duty he joined the Special Forces Reserve. He was an industrial engineer in heavy manufacturing, was Manager of Engineering at Garden State Industries and the Jameson Door Company. In addition to the Six Napoleons, Hixon was a member of the American Institute of Industrial Engineering. His other interests included ancient history and archeology, auto-racing, poetry, and folk music. Hixon died June 12, 2007, in Wilmington Delaware.
(Julie McKuras)
Laurence Cooper – CCIII
​​
​
​
Dr. Barry Marx – CCIV
Barry Stephen Marx was born October 17, 1955, in Brooklyn, NY. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania then graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1980. He served his internship and residency in Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center. Marx specializes in Pediatric Endocrinology. He was named a Napoleon in 1988.
(Julie McKuras)
Charles Bowers – CCV
Michael J. Sare – CCVI
Michael Joseph Sare was born in 1950 and received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972. He joined the U.S. Navy as an ensign in 1972 and his Naval career encompassed service in the Cryptology, Operations, National War College, and the National Security Agency. His foreign posts included Japan and Scotland. Sare received his MS in Computer Systems Management from the University of Maryland in 1993 and that same year completed Strategic Studies from the National War College. He retired from the Navy in 1998 and worked as the Program Manager in Cyber Defense R & D for AT & T Government Solutions. He then spent two years in Japan at a new Christian School teaching English and establishing the “New Life Puppeteers.” He expanded his education in puppetry for television and film and spent 2013-2015 at the Albuquerque Veterans Administration Hospital assisting veterans in establishing accounts. Since then he has been a performer, public speaker, puppeteer and actor in Albuquerque. He is a member of Alpha Chi Sigma and the Institute of American Chemical Engineers.
​
While serving in Scotland he was the Gasogene of The Dancing Men of Edzell.
(Julie McKuras)
John Pforr – CCVII
John Evan Pforr was born July 25, 1938 in Baltimore. A 1956 graduate of St. Paul’s School for Boys, he received a B.A. in Sociology from William and Mary where he was a member of Theta Delta Chi and active in the Varsity Club and Varsity Tennis. In 1961 he entered the U.S. Army and was sent to Berlin as a combat support officer. After his 1963 discharge as a lieutenant he went to work as a spice salesman for McCormick and Co. Pforr joined the Secret Service in 1965 and was assigned to the detail for President Dwight D. Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm. His subsequent assignments were two years in the White House protecting Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by Richard M. Nixon during the election and later as president. During Nixon’s presidency he accompanied him to visits in Australia and Vietnam when the “Huey helicopter taking us [Nixon’s party] to the presidential palace in Saigon were fired on.” From 1970 to 1972 he served in the Seattle field office, then 1972 to 1975 was a senior instructor in the Washington Training Division. He was named senior special agent in the New Haven, CT field office in 1975 and in 1983 relocated to act as senior special agent in Baltimore. He retired in 1989. After his retirement he joined The Six Napoleons and in 1996 received the investiture of Police-Constable Cook from the Baker Street Irregulars. In 2018 he was invested as “Federal Hill” by the Sherlockians of Baltimore. He participated in Enoch Pratt Free Library Saturday with Sherlock Holmes programs and made numerous presentations to groups such as The Clients of Sherlock Holmes, the Norwegian Explorers, and the Carlton Club. His other interests were model trains, railroads, H.L. Mencken, and Winston Churchill. He belonged to the Maryland Club, Washington’s Army and Navy Club, Wednesday Club and “the ROMEO lunch club – Retired Old Men Eating Out – at St. Paul’s.” An Outstanding Alumnus of St. Paul’s, he served on St. Paul’s alumni board. Pforr died September 23, 2020, at the age of 82.
(Julie McKuras)
Grant S. Heller – CCVIII
Glenn K. Bell – CCIX
J. Mitchel Zemo – CCX
Walter Mahany – CCXI
Philip O'Donnell – CCXII
Langdon B. Backus – CCXIII
Langdon Boteler Backus was born September 16, 1911 in Brownsville, MD. He was a student at the University of Maryland College Park, graduated from the University of New Mexico, and took two years of post-graduate studies in the school of hygiene and public health at Johns Hopkins University. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on February 6, 1942 and spent four years doing administrative work, rising to the rank of Lieutenant and serving at Fort Benning, GA and Camp Bowie, TX. After working in the statistical section of the Baltimore City Health Department he was appointed as the supervisor of the Hagerstown, MD district for the 1950 Census. Backus appeared on television in June 1954 in “’Comeback,’ a special service program sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Education, division of vocational rehabilitation.” The purpose of the program was to highlight those who have done well vocationally despite obstacles. At that time, he was the assistant chief for the United States Air Force property division, Fairfield Aircraft Division and later owned a shop in Harpers Ferry.
Backus died on April 2, 2002 in Columbia MD. He was a member of the Civil War Round Table and the Pleasant Valley Ruritian Club. Jim Arva remembered him for “his singular determination, toward the end of his life, to attend Napoleon meetings...I remember his good cheer and friendly smiles, and the obvious pleasure he took in being part of the proceedings.”
(Julie McKuras)
James F. Ridenour – CCXIV
James Franklin Ridenour, was born in Peoria, Ill., and raised in Champaign, Ill. After graduating from Champaign High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1954 from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill., where he was editor of the campus newspaper and launched his career as a fundraiser to raise money for a new Sigma Chi house.
After working as a representative for Armstrong Cork Company in Great Falls, MT, Salt Lake City, Denver and Chicago for 13 years, he was appointed as the Associate Director of Development for his alma mater in 1968. In 1973, Ridenour was appointed Vice President for Advancement at Western Maryland College. In 1984, he became Vice President for Advancement at Berry College in Rome, GA, before leaving in 1988 to become a senior consultant at Marts & Lundy in Lyndhurst, N.J. Before retiring in 2008, Ridenour worked with 53 colleges and universities on more than 50 capital campaigns, in which he succeeded in raising more than a billion dollars. A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, he succeeded in achieving a goal of seeing a game in every major league ballpark, before he passed away at age 86 in 2019.
(Greg Ruby)
Lewis Neisner – CCXV
Lewis James Neisner was born March 24, 1939 in Rochester, NY. He “graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, Princeton University, B.A. and Columbia University, M.B.A. He served for six years in the U. S. Army Reserves.” In 1963 he joined his family firm, Neisner Brothers, a national chain of discount and five & dime stores. He was named secretary of the company in 1968, personnel director in 1970, and Vice-President, Store Operations Director, Junior Department Stores while continuing as Corporate Secretary in 1974. The company went out of business in 1979 and Neisner took a position as a “professor of retailing and marketing, teaching at Buffalo State College, and from 1990 to 2007 as an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland at College Park.” He retired in 2007, moving back to Rochester, where he became an active member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute teaching Sherlock Holmes, modern art, health care reform, jazz, Joyce Carol Oates, and the Great American Songbook. He founded Rochester Row, a Sherlock Holmes Society, and served on the boards of the Torch Club and the Princeton Club of Rochester. He played bridge, enjoyed breakfast and lunch clubs, and drawing on his experience in running track for Princeton, ran a marathon in under four hours when he was 40. Neisner died March 1, 2018.
(Julie McKuras)
William McCartin – CCXVI
William Robert McCartin was born September 1, 1928, in Baltimore. McCartin enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1946. He attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in Political Science and later received his M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “He attended Cornell University and the University of Maryland Law School, received an Accounting degree from Johns Hopkins University, and was a licensed Certified Public Accountant.” He worked at the Sparrow’s Point and later the Bethlehem Steel Company from 1957 through 1961 then went to work at the Noxema Chemical Company, serving as Controller of Noxell beginning in 1980. He received his D.P.M.A. certificate in data processing in 1962 and became an instructor in data processing at the Baltimore College of Commerce. In 1964 he was elected president of the Baltimore chapter of the Data Processing Management Association. He was also an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.
​
McCartin was a commander of the Baltimore Chapter No. 1 of the Disabled American Veterans as early as 1960 and in 1962 was named Senior Vice Commander of the Maryland Department of the Disabled American Veterans. He served as president of the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Trust and was a member of the Joint Veterans Commission of Maryland which studied the effects of Agent Orange. The treasurer of the Maryland Service Foundation, he was a life member of the DAV and named Veteran of the Year in 1986. He belonged to the American Legion, Kelly-Timonium Post #174, was past president of the Madonna Chapter 883 of the AARP, and was a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society. He was active with the Boy Scouts as well. Additionally, he served on the board of the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce. His other interests included genealogy, traveling, history, and Duke and Hopkins lacrosse. McCartin died May 12, 2013, in White Hall, MD.
(Julie McKuras)
Daniel Lewis – CCXVII
Michael Maher – CCXVIII
Alvin Michael Maher, Jr. was born August 9, 1929 in Houston. He graduated with a BS degree in physics from Tulane University where he was active in Pi Kappa Alpha and Alpha Phi Omega and later did graduate work at the University of Maryland. He “flew F-86s and F-94Cs in the 84th Fighter Squadron, Air Defense Command USAF” during the Korean War. After the war Maher was a government contractor and “developed the phased radar system found in naval warships today.” He was an important part of the group who designed and manufacture of the Pegasus satellite which “gathered crucial data for NASA’s moon missions.” He founded an environmental testing laboratory, serving as President and CEO beginning in 1970. While at the US Department of Commerce he was the leader in designing the Industrial Energy Conservation Program which was vital to the improvement of energy efficiency in reducing the country’s dependency on foreign oil for manufacturers. Prior to retirement he was employed at Potomac Electric Power Company where he “designed and implemented a load control program which contributed to cancellation of a major new generating plant” and later was a consultant on electric cars with the Electric Power Research Institute.
​
Maher was active in civic groups including the Lindamoor Improvement Association, the International Club of Annapolis, and was an associate member of the Class of 1953, USNA. He died on November 29, 2014, in Annapolis.
(Julie McKuras)
Frederick H. Habicht, Jr. – CCXIX
Frederick Herman Habicht, Jr. was born June 30, 1942. He graduated from Boys’ Latin High School where he was noted for his love and involvement with various sports and work on the yearbook. In 1965 he graduated from the University of Baltimore with a B.A. in History. Habicht died on November 19, 2015, in Baltimore.
(Julie McKuras)
Edward M. Dopkowski – CCXX
Edward Milton Dopkowski was born September 2, 1912, in Baltimore. He served as a sergeant in the 26th Yankee Infantry Division in World War II. The Baltimore Sun of January 11, 1945, carried an article about him, relating how he had just finished his guard duties at 3 a.m. when a farmer called for help. “Dopkowski followed the farmer into a barn and followed his directions. Today, both mother and newborn calf were doing nicely.” In addition to his own military service, his wife M’Lissa La Moria Dopkowski was a WAC during the war. He worked as a butcher for many years and later owned and operated Eddie’s Meat Market for 30 years. Dopkowski died on June 23, 2002, in Baltimore.
(Julie McKuras)
​
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – CCXXI
At the February 13, 1992 meeting of the Six Napoleons, Bob Doerfler made a motion that the literary agent of Doctor Watson be honored as Napoleon CCXXI, which unanimously passed.
​
Doyle visited the United States on four separate visits but never stopped in Baltimore. For more information regarding Doyle, we recommend Daniel Stashower’s Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle.
​