To their everlasting credit, Beverly and Richard Tilghman rarely turn down an invitation to be honored by the local organizations they are eager to help. While this very modest couple sees this kind of attention as perhaps the equivalent of a root canal procedure, the Tilghmans understand better than most, after decades of serving on volunteer boards of schools and organizations, that this temporary spotlight on them can significantly help the causes they believe deserve support.

And it is also true that those organizations have had an abundance of cause to recognize the Tilghmans. Best known for their leadership in historic preservation and their family’s centuries-old stewardship of the famed Wye House, the Tilghmans have also had a lifelong commitment to ecological conservation. From creating their own living shoreline at Wye House to being advocates for land conservation, water protection, and the critical role of research, the Tilghmans were the logical choice to be awarded by the UM-Horn Point Lab in Dorchester County as the Chesapeake Champions for 2021.

With a community celebration set for September 30th at the Tidewater Inn. the Tilghmans sat down with the Spy at Wye House last week to talk about their love of Horn Point, its remarkable research by its talented pool of young graduate students, and how education is making the difference in protecting the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

This video is approximately minutes in length. Additional photography by Jeff McGuiness. For more information and ticket information for the Chesapeake Champion event please go here.

In 2005, when co-founders Dina and Derick Daly were developing their plans to create their new organization, Building African-American Minds (BAAM), one thing was clear to both of them; they needed to start their experimental after-school program with boys.

With Dina’s first-hand experience as a social worker and their review of relevant data, the couple felt they had no choice but to reach out to young boys who were struggling the most with school, family, and developing social skills that position them to succeed in life. And with that in mind, BAAM began what was to be one of the most transformational youth programs on the Eastern Shore.

Fast-forward sixteen years, and with the philanthropic support of BAAM board chair Bill Ryan and his wife, Joan Richtsmeier, Building African-American Minds is finally in a position to start a girls program.

In fact, 2021 represents an entirely new era. Not only is there now a girls component, under the direction of newly hired Bobbie Jean, a former Dorchester County Public Schools teacher, but Dina has also succeeded her husband as BAAM’s executive director this year.

A few weeks ago, the Spy sat down with both of them at the BAAM campus in Easton to talk about this exciting new time for BAAM, but also the organization’s latest goal of building a new academic center as the organization hits the $2.9 million mark of an anticipated cost of $5.8 million.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about BAAM or make a donation, please visit here.

Tom Malone, the former Director of Horn Point Laboratories near Cambridge, should have had a career west of the Mississippi. Born just outside the city limits of San Francisco, a graduate of Colorado College, and who later earning a master’s degree from the University of Hawaii in oceanography, and finally, a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford, this academic pedigree would have suggested a career on the West Coast rather than his distinguished tenure at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science over the past five decades. 

But the way Dr. Malone tells it, it was his wife’s gentle reminder after he had completed his doctorate in 1971 that he did, indeed, need to make a living. And with that in mind, he and his young family moved East, first by teaching at City College of New York and then joining Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, before agreeing to move to the Eastern Shore to be part of UM’s Center for Environment Study. 

Since those early days, Malone had a remarkable impact on that institution. During that time, he served as the Director of its Horn Point Laboratory, was appointed Interim President of UMCES, the Interagency Ocean Director, and served on the US Office for Sustained and Integrated Ocean Observations. 

And while those titles do indeed suggest a career in academic bureaucracy, what is remarkable was how successful Tom has been in maintaining his primary focus on research. In fact, over his time there, Malone has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications on phytoplankton ecology, coastal eutrophication, and the development of ocean policy and integrated coastal ocean observing systems.

Even when he “retired” and assumed the title of Professor Emeritus in 2010, Malone has never stopped his scholarship work. In fact, at the time of our interview with him, Tom, along with his colleagues, Alenka Malej and Jadran Faganeli, had just published Coastal Ecosystems in Transition: A Comparative Analysis of the Northern Adriatic and the Chesapeake Bay, which provided an in-depth study of how two coastal ecosystems are responding to the pressures of human expansion. 

While Malone quips in his recent Spy interview that he’ll need to figure out what to do in the future to maintain his “relevance” since the book was published, there is little doubt of his lasting impact in leading and assisting his colleagues to protect the Chesapeake Bay. 

This video is approximately ten minutes in length. For more information about University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Horn Point Laboratories, please go here.

Last month, the Spy spent some time with Talbot County developer Bob Greenlee to talk about his firm’s recent proposal to convert many Perdue Farms silos in Easton into residential units. Working with Easton and London-based architect Mitch Hager, this concept has been hailed for its brilliant design, which is one reason that Bob’s interview has become one of the Spy’s most viewed articles this year.

But Bob’s work is not limited to the silo project. Greenlee’s fingerprints can be found on some of Talbot County’s most significant commercial and retail development projects, including, but certainly not limited to, a new vision for Talbottown and a unique residential approach to Oxford’s historic Robert Morris Inn.

In part two of our interview, the Spy talks to Bob about those projects and his thoughts about the future of the Tidewater Inn. And he also assesses the impact of Easton downtown developer Paul Prager and the positive economic impact of his Bluepoint Hospitality Group investments on Talbot County real estate.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length.

Correction. In the initial article it was implied that the Tidewater Inn was for sale. It is not.