Letter from Baltimore Sun Publisher & Editor Trif Alatzas: 2018 Business and Civic Hall of Fame

Trif Alatzas

Welcome to the third edition of our annual Baltimore Sun Business and Civic Hall of Fame. The Sun’s Hall of Fame recognizes career achievements of selected Maryland leaders. Our editorial board collaborated with business and community leaders as well as with past Hall of Fame inductees to choose citizens who have shown leadership in business, philanthropy, public service, education, the arts and more.

The Baltimore Sun Media Group has shown its leadership in business, journalism and debate since its founding in 1837. Back then and through the next 175 years or so, legendary Marylanders such as Bea Gaddy, Johns Hopkins, Thurgood Marshall and Enoch Pratt, among others, would have been the kind of people we would have chosen to honor. The Sun’s Hall of Fame is designed to recognize Maryland’s modern-day leaders with accomplished careers and achievements.

Ten individuals were chosen for this year’s class and we officially inducted them this week into the Hall of Fame. They join 22 people who made up the first two classes, including the late U.S. Rep. Helen Delich Bentley (’16) and John Paterakis Sr. (’16) as well as current business and civic leaders such as Eddie and Sylvia Brown (’16), David Cordish (’17) and George Russell Jr. (’17).

We are expanding this Hall of Fame annually by inducting leaders who have helped to make Baltimore and Maryland better throughout their careers. We will consider new individuals each year who have made this community stronger through their own efforts. And we will identify those with a deep commitment to make this city and state a better place for future generations.

We sought nominations from our readers to identify a diverse group of women and men who should be considered. Our selection committee this year included Greater Baltimore Committee President and CEO Donald C. Fry and University of Maryland Baltimore County President Freeman A. Hrabowski III. They were joined by Hall of Fame inductees from our first two classes: Michael Cryor, (’17), Nancy S. Grasmick (’16) and former State Sen. Francis X. Kelly Jr. (’16) Together, they assisted our editorial board in studying each nominee, discussing their accomplishments and helping to choose the members of the Class of 2018.

The selection panel considered various criteria including a nominee’s business success, their influence in building and helping to expand organizations, community leadership, support for various causes and detailed achievements in leading Maryland and this region forward. Members of the editorial board made final decisions. As we have done in the past, a portion of the proceeds from this Hall of Fame publication will be made to Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. We are pleased to thank our sponsors of this event whose advertising can be found throughout this publication and on baltimoresun.com.

You will learn more about this year’s Hall of Fame inductees throughout the pages of this magazine. Thank you to each of them for their leadership and commitment to Baltimore and Maryland.

Congratulations to the Class of 2018.