Meet the members of The Baltimore Sun’s Business and Civic Hall of Fame, class of 2023 | COMMENTARY

The Baltimore Sun is pleased to announce the 2023 class of inductees into our Business and Civic Hall of Fame, chosen for their leadership and community endeavors. We will honor these 14 accomplished women and men and at an awards banquet to be held at The Center Club in Baltimore on June 8 and in a special section to be published shortly thereafter.

This year’s honorees are:

Leonard Attman

The chairman of Attman Properties Company, Leonard Attman has more than 60 years of experience in the real estate industry, building commercial properties and apartment communities throughout the state. He is also the founder of FutureCare Health and Management, which manages nursing home facilities and rehabilitation centers throughout Maryland. The University of Maryland graduate has been a member of the Maryland Stadium authority since 2005. He is also a board member at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture, the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center and Sinai Hospital.

Michael J. and Patricia K. Batza

Michael and Patricia Batza have given generously of their time and funds to many organizations throughout the greater Baltimore region for decades. This was noted in 2013, when the couple was awarded the John Franklin Goucher Medal for their service, “supporting educational and medical institutions, arts groups, and service and religious organizations” through their Michael J. & Patricia K. Batza Foundation. Mrs. Batza is a member of the board of trustees at Goucher and a graduate. Mr. Batza is chairman of commercial real estate firm Heritage Properties Inc. and was a founding partner of Meridian Healthcare. He has served on multiple boards including the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Mercy Medical Center, St. Mary’s Seminary & University, the National Aquarium of Baltimore, and the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Board of Financial Administration.

John R. Bryant

A Baltimore native, retired bishop John R. Bryant has pastored three churches, including the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, which he’s credited with reviving. He has shepherded more than 100 women and men into the ministry during his tenure at the pulpit, including his daughter, Thema Bryant Davis, and son, Jamal H. Bryant. Bishop Bryant graduated from Baltimore City College High School and Morgan State University, and served in the Peace Corps, volunteering in West Africa for several years before earning a Master of Theology degree from the Boston University School of Theology, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School. His ministry took him to Massachusetts and the Midwest, but Baltimore has claimed him in retirement.

Mary Catherine Bunting

Mary Catherine Bunting sought to serve others from an early age. The granddaughter of the founder of the Noxzema Chemical Company volunteered at Mercy as a teenager, after spending 10 days in the hospital recovering from a significant car accident. She went on to earn degrees in sociology and nursing, and to work in Mercy’s labor and delivery department, and later as a nurse practitioner at an outreach center in South Baltimore. At the same time, she prepared for ministry, entering the orders of the Sisters of Mercy in 1959. But in 1974, she felt her calling was elsewhere and left the order. “Having regained access to her worldly possessions, she began donating to charities in deeply significant ways,” Mercy notes on its website. A generous gift allowed Mercy to build its 18-story main hospital facility, named in her honor.

Richard W. “Dick” Cass

Dick Cass retired last year after 18 years as president of the Ravens, running every aspect of the business side of the football team, while making a point of supporting area organizations. The Ravens, along with The Stephen and Renee Bisciotti Foundation, donated millions during his time at the helm to multiple groups, including the United Way of Central Maryland, the Baltimore Community Foundation and the Maryland Food Bank. Mr. Cass also led the way on a $120 million upgrade to the fan experience at Ravens stadium, among many other efforts. Prior to joining the Ravens, Mr. Cass was a partner at the Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering law firm in Washington D.C. for 31 years.

Kevin J. Cullen

Kevin J. Cullen, an oncologist who specializes in head and neck cancers, plans to retire this year as director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he oversees a staff of 275 doctors and researchers working toward one goal: saving lives. Under Dr. Cullen’s guidance, the center has received the highest designation from the National Cancer Institute; research funding has nearly tripled; and clinical trials have more than doubled. Dr. Cullen’s own laboratory studies the ways head and neck cancers resist chemotherapy, in the hopes of better targeting treatment.

Robert J. “Bob” Gehman

In January, Bob Gehman retired as CEO of the Helping Up Mission, which he ran for 28 years, expanding the faith-based nonprofit’s reach and its mission, which today is to transform individuals struggling under the weight of drugs, alcohol, poverty or homelessness through a spiritual recovery program. Under Mr. Gehman’s leadership, the Baltimore nonprofit has increased its available number of beds more than tenfold, and added a new Center for Women and Children, which opened earlier this year. He continues to serve the nonprofit as president emeritus.

Leslie King Hammond

Leslie King Hammond is an artist, author, curator and scholar who serves as graduate dean emerita at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and the founding director of its Center for Race and Culture, which was launched in 2008 to facilitate research into the ways in which race, culture and identity influence art and the interpretation of it. She is a member of the board of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and a sought-after speaker. Dr. King Hammond also has received numerous grants, fellowships and awards, including the Alain Locke International Prize from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Anthony “Tony” Hawkins

Tony Hawkins has been described as “pure Baltimore,” educated at City College High School, and Morgan State and Johns Hopkins universities. He was the first general manager of Harborplace, and saw it through 15 successful years. Today, the former Rouse Co. vice president is rooting hard for its revitalization. In 1998, he was named chair of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, and later he founded the Hawkins Development Group. He serves on the board of trustees of the SEED School of Maryland in Baltimore, a tuition-free public boarding school that aims to provide “underestimated, motivated children with an extraordinary educational experience.”

Sherrilyn Ifill

Sherrilyn Ifill is president and director-counsel emerita of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which she led from 2013 until last year, when she stepped down to write a book about “America’s ongoing embrace of white supremacy,” according to publisher Penguin Random House. The civil rights attorney and activist is credited with leading the LDF through it’s greatest period of growth and transformation. She grew up in New York City, the youngest of 10 children, but has called Baltimore home for three decades, moving here initially to teach at the University of Maryland Law School.

Sheela Murthy

The Harvard-educated founder and president of the Murthy Law Firm focuses her booming practice on U.S. immigration law, helping others navigate a process that she went through herself, coming to this country as a native of India. Ms. Murthy is a frequent speaker on complex immigration issues, invited to present around the globe, and she has received numerous awards for her work. She is also a noted philanthropist, contributing to nonprofits that work with women, children and immigrants through the MurthyNAYAK Foundation, which she established with her husband, Vasant Nayak, and serves on the boards of multiple organizations.

Timothy J. “Tim” Regan

Whiting Turner President and CEO Tim Regan invested $1 million to acquire the shuttered Target site at Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore and is in the process of, with additional investment, transforming it into a community hub for local entrepreneurs and groups offering job training, tutoring and mentoring. The graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and the University of Maryland worked in construction inspection for the Maryland State Highway Administration before joining Whiting-Turner as a project engineer and rising through the ranks at the contracting company.

Terry Meyerhoff Rubenstein

Terry M. Rubenstein served as Executive Vice President of the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds from 1998, until her retirement in 2011. Before that, she worked as a developer and journalist in radio and at The Baltimore Sun, and as a real estate developer. She has been an active volunteer and philanthropist throughout her life, and serves on multiple boards, including as treasurer of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

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