Paterakis among those honored by Baltimore Sun
News organization lauds movers and shakers at corporate-funded awards ceremony
Above: John Paterakis Sr. is inducted into the Baltimore Sun’s “Business and Civic Hall of Fame” last June. Paterakis died on October 16 at age 87. (You Tube)
Baker and developer John Paterakis Sr. was among a dozen people honored as inductees to the first Baltimore Sun Business and Civic Hall of Fame.
Former Mercy Medical Center CEO Sister Helen Amos and philanthropists Eddie C. Brown and Sylvia Brown were other honorees feted at an awards banquet featuring prominent personalities in real estate, government and civic engagement.
“Happy to see you all here,” Paterakis told the crowd. “You gotta remember, I’m just a little Greek baker,” pausing for effect, “that got lucky.”
Holding the microphone for the H&S Bakery owner and Harbor East developer was George Petrocheilos, a partner with Camden Partners, a private equity firm co-founded by recent mayoral candidate David Warnock.
Baltimore Sun publisher Trif Alatzas spoke at what the news organization described as an inaugural event, welcoming honorees and guests at the June 9 event at the Center Club.
“As one of the region’s proud institutions, we at The Baltimore Sun are delighted to chronicle their achievements as they have helped so many institutions in this community thrive,” Alatzas said in a video.
According to baltsunhalloffame.com, nominations for the award “were solicited from The Baltimore Sun readers, and winners were selected by a committee consisting of our editorial board as well as the area’s most prominent leaders.”
The news organization described the creation of an annual Hall of Fame award as a project “a year in the making.”
Sun photographers captured the inductees in quintessential settings. Orioles team owner Peter Angelos, for example, is shown in his high-rise law office with the Shot Tower behind him. Former Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley is posed at the prow of the S.S. John W. Brown Liberty ship.
Major underwriters for the dinner event – BGE and TransAmerica – were joined by Legg Mason, University of Maryland Medical System, Mercy Medical Center, UMBC, Henderson-Webb Inc., Flowers & Fancies and others.
A portion of the net proceeds from the affair, the Sun said, went toward a $20,000 donation to Junior Achievement of Central Maryland.
Movers and Shakers
The achievements of the awardees were celebrated in stories and videos on the news organization’s website.
Among the figures recognized was Angelos, who in addition to being a Major League Baseball owner has significant downtown Baltimore real estate holdings .
“His friends credit him with an unwavering sense of right and wrong and a bottomless devotion to seeing that the former is done,” Alatzas said in introducing the baseball team owner.
Also honored was Theo C. Rodgers, CEO of A&R Development, a firm co-founded with the late William Lloyd “Little Willie” Adams, and a benefactor to Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore Community Foundation.
Theo C. Rodgers at June 9 ceremony inducting him into the Baltimore Sun’s Business and Civic Hall of Fame. (YouTube)
Among other business leaders honored was James A.C. Kennedy, former CEO of T. Rowe Price. Kennedy’s civic contribution as “a major supporter of the Teach for America program” was noted.
Among the government officials honored was former Maryland School Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick and ex-state senator Francis X. Kelly Jr., a key backer of state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh’s successful run for the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor.
Mingling with members of the Sun’s editorial board and Hall of Fame inductees were such political heavy hitters as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, former Baltimore County Executive and Maryland Transportation Secretary James T. Smith Jr., and retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson.