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. 

Not so long ago, the idea that a woman would be attending the United States Naval Academy would have struck many of a certain age as unimaginable, but when Gunston School senior Sydney Nittle was asked how she felt about attending this historically male institution, she had a look of surprise in her eyes that suggested how silly that question was in 2021.

So it is so refreshing to note that for this generation of high school seniors, that antiquated debate regarding single-sex education in our military academies is ancient history.

But what is even more refreshing is the exceptional quality of candidates that places like West Point and Annapolis are attracting even at a time when the United States remains engaged in combat operations.

A case in point is Gunston School’s Sydney Nittle. Motivated by a family history of military service, the active support of the Mid-Shore’s Bob Degour, the volunteer USNA Blue and Gold officer who helps future midshipmen with Academy admissions, and Gunston’s focus on developing leadership in their graduates, the stage was set for Sydney to navigate the extremely difficult application process and successfully become this summer an official member of the Class of 2025.

We asked Sydney the other day to stop by the Spy studio to talk about that process as she prepares her summer enrollment in Annapolis in a few weeks.

This video is approximately four minutes in length.

For close to four centuries, the Mid-Shore has debated the pros and cons of “Come Heres” by the “From Heres.” Harking back to when white settlers were starting to arrive in Maryland in the 1600s, there has been a longstanding caution by those born in the five-county region to outsiders moving into their communities.

While this historic impulse is now mostly the subject of good humor, the dynamic can still have an edgy side when it comes to politics, culture and the inevitable impact on home values and property tax assessments.

But to its credit, the Mid-Shore is also well aware of the extraordinary positives that come with the “new” people. And one of those clearly in the case of philanthropy. With such extraordinary examples as the W. Alton Jones family and more recently, the late Jim Clark, generations of “Come-Heres” have been instrumental in the creation and ongoing support of museums, schools, hospitals, and countless other civic needs.

That’s important information to remember as the Eastern Shore experiences an unprecedented surge of Come-Heres, well, coming here. Even before the COVID pandemic fundamentally changed both life and work for many, the Mid-Shore, with its proximity to three major American cities, was seeing a wave of former urbanites calling Dorchester, Kent, or Talbot Counties their primary home of residence.

One of those new “Come Heres” is Bill Ryan. A native of Pittsburgh, Bill makes no secret that he has come from a very privileged background. The grandson of a mining engineer who made a fortune inventing the first hardhat with a light built into it, Bill has enjoyed the kind of upper-class life that included private schools, professional success, and such recreational pursuits as sailing.

And sailing was a major co-factor in Bill and his wife moving to Talbot County eight years ago. Both long-time professors at Penn State, the semi-retired couple were not only eager to enjoy life on the Chesapeake Bay but also to give back to the community.

In his Spy interview, Bill talks about his roots, his family’s influence in wanting to give back, and his unique role as Chair of Building African-American Minds (BAAM) in Easton.

Following in the footsteps of Clark, Bill Hunter, and Dickie Firth, Bill was keen to support the work of founders Derick and Dina Daly with capital investments to expand programming, the building of an athletic center, and now heading up a capital campaign for BAAM’s new academic center.

The Spy spoke with Bill at the Spy Studio a few weeks ago in Easton.

In a few weeks, Americans of all sorts will be celebrating the traditional Memorial Day weekend. And in between family BBQs and trips to the beach, many of them will attend ceremonies or parades that honor those who have died while serving in the military for the United States of America.

One of them will be Chestertown’s Michael McDowell. With long ties to the military, the Irish-born retiree quickly connects to America’s servicemen and women when reporting for the CBC, being a scholar at Harvard, or while serving The Citadel’s board of directors. His enthusiasm was so positive that he nor his wife, Susan, thought twice about their son attending a military academy nor a future career as a Marines.

But Memorial Day has meant something entirely different for the McDowells since they received word that their son, Conor, their only child, was killed in an planned military exercise accident in California two years ago this month.

Conor, who had only recently graduated from college, was training in an armored vehicle with several others when it unexpectedly fell and rolled into a exceptionally large crevasse in the practice zone.

It is impossible to comprehend the loss of this magnitude on any parent, but for Michael, the pain was so much more intense once he discovered that Conor’s death could have been entirely avoidable.

After flying out to California to comfort Conor’s fiancé and meet with officers about the tragedy, a simple Google search told the veteran journalist that his son’s accident was just one of a long pattern where men and women were dying during similar rollover accidents.

That search result was all that was needed for the McDowell family to transition from profound grief and turn it into a campaign. Using long established Washington contacts and the support of the Maryland delegation in Congress, the McDowells did something that is rarely done in the federal government; as private citizens they convinced the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to launch an independent review of military training and oversight. The GAO will release that study and its recommendations to Capitol Hill next month.

The Spy talked to Michael at his home in Chestertown last week about this painful journey and the special mission of truly memorializing his son Conor.

This video is approximately six minutes in length.