James H. Pierce, led firms making betting machines
Services for James H. Pierce, who headed both of the country's leading pari-mutuel betting machine companies during his career, will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday at St. John's Episcopal Church, 3738 Butler Road, Glyndon.
Mr. Pierce, who was 62, died Thursday of cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
A native of the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee, Ga., he was president of the American Totalisator Co., the country's oldest pari-mutuel machine firm, from 1973 to 1982. A subsidiary of General Instrument Corp., it is now called AmTote and is based in Hunt Valley.
American Totalisator Co. was founded by the late Harry Straus, a Johns Hopkins University-trained engineer. He invented the electronic totalizator that registers bets, computes odds and automates payouts. Racetracks everywhere depend on the devices.
Mr. Straus also installed the nation's first electronic odds-display board at Pimlico more than 50 years ago.
In 1982, Mr. Pierce joined Autotote, of Newark, Del., a leading competitor of his former company, and until 1989 he was chief executive officer and board chairman. He stepped down as CEO but remained Autotote's chairman until his death.
Mr. Pierce grew up in the family dairy business in Georgia. In 1952, he graduated from North Georgia Military College. He was commissioned an Army second lieutenant and served as an airborne instructor at Fort Benning, Ga., until 1954, when he returned to the family business.
He left the farm in 1961 to become a route salesman in Georgia for Servomation, a food and vending machine service now called ServAmerica. Mr. Pierce rose through the corporate ranks and when he left the New York office in 1973 to join American Tote, he was Servomation's vice president for sales.
An intense businessman, Mr. Pierce also played hard as an avid golfer. He was a member of the Elkridge Club, the Baltimore Country Club, the Atlanta Athletic Club and the Wee Burn Country Club in Darien, Conn.
He headed the golf committee at the Baltimore Country Club at Five Farms, and was instrumental in bringing the U.S. Women's Open Golf Tournament there in 1988. It was the first time the event had been held in the Baltimore area.
Mr. Pierce is survived by his wife of 16 years, the former Anne Ripley Struven; his father, Paul E. Pierce of Atlanta; a son, Brooks H. Pierce of Baltimore; a daughter, Kimberly Fowler of Atlanta; a stepdaughter, Catherine L. Lucas of Baltimore; a brother, Paul E. Pierce Jr. of Daytona Beach, Fla.; a sister, Vivian Hall of Atlanta; and a grandson.
Visitors will be received at the family's home in Ruxton from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. today and tomorrow. The family suggested memorial contributions to the cytopeutics program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital Oncology Center, in care of Dr. William P. McGuire. A memorial service for Robert W. Smith, a banker, retired bakery executive and former Navy pilot who was active in trapshooting and other sports, will be held at 11 a.m. today at Trinity Lutheran Church in Taneytown.
A Taneytown resident, he died March 17 of cancer at a hospital in Gettysburg, Pa. He was 79.
He retired in 1978 as vice president of Smith Bakeries Inc., a family business in Ladiesburg, and was chairman of the board of the Taneytown Bank and Trust Co.
Named to the Trapshooting Hall of Fame in 1985, Mr. Smith had won local, national and international trapshooting championships. He had been president and treasurer of the Amateur Trapshooting Association International and treasurer of the Maryland State Sportsmen's Association, another trapshooting group.
The native of Woodsboro was a 1936 graduate of Gettysburg College, where he was a member of the baseball team. He had pitched for sandlot teams in Central Maryland and was a member of the Oldtimers Baseball Association of Maryland.
During World War II, he was a Navy flight instructor. He was a civilian ferry pilot for military planes at the end of the war.
In the late 1940s, he owned planes and operated the Taneytown Airport. He was a captain and squadron commander in the Civil Air Patrol.
He was a member of the Monocacy Lodge of the Masons, nTC Scottish Rite, Boumi Temple, Western Maryland Shrine Club, Westminster Lodge of the Elks, the American Legion Post in Taneytown and the Taneytown Rod and Gun Club, and was a former member of the Carroll County Commission on Physical Fitness.
Mr. Smith is survived by his wife, the former Marjorie Matthews; two nephews, Webster C. Smith of Emmitsburg and John F. Meehan of Mechanicsburg, Pa., and a niece, Joanne Godfrey of Deep River, Conn.
Sam G. Browning
Executive vice president
Services for Sam G. Browning, retired executive vice president of what is now the USF&G; Corp., will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Mitchell-Wiedefeld Home, 6500 York Road.
Mr. Browning, who was 84, died Thursday at his home in Arden on the Severn after a stroke.
He retired in 1972, but continued working with the company as a consultant on the construction of its headquarters building near the Inner Harbor.
He began working for what was then the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. in 1936 in Monroe, La., and was transferred to the home office in Baltimore four years later.
The native of Hattiesburg, Miss., was a graduate of Louisiana State University.
He served as an air raid warden during World War II and was a member of the Severn River Organization.
He enjoyed flower gardening, ocean fishing and hunting waterfowl and small game.
His wife, the former Mary Green, died in 1970.
He is survived by a daughter, Rhoda Browning McWilliams of Arden on the Severn; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Virginia Ida Jones
Property manager
A memorial service for Virginia Ida Jones, who worked in family businesses and was active in educational and community groups, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Epworth Chapel United Methodist Church, St. Luke's Lane and Liberty Road in the Woodmoor area.
Mrs. Jones, who was 75, died March 17 of Alzheimer's disease at the Irvington Knolls Care Center.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Baltimore resident managed real estate the family owned and kept the books for a dry cleaning business on Madison Avenue that carried the family name.
Born in Turners Station, the former Virginia Ida Frazier was a graduate of Douglass High School and what is now Coppin State College.
She was a substitute teacher as a young woman and later was a member of the PTAs at the Henry Highland Garnett and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Elementary Schools, Western High School and Polytechnic Institute. She was president of the PTA at the Booker T. Washington Junior High School.
She was a member of the Iota Child Study Group and the Monumental Democratic Club, and had been an election judge in West Baltimore. She became a notary public in the 1950s.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Pythias A. Jones; three daughters, Gilda Garrett and Verna Lynn Jones, both of Baltimore, and Ernestine Jolivett of Randallstown; two sons, Alvin A. Jones of Baltimore and Dr. Pythias D. Jones of Cleveland; six grandchildren and a great-grandson.
Earl E. Slaybaugh
Partner in nursery
Services for Earl E. Slaybaugh, retired manager of the shipping department of the Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Co. in Baltimore and a partner in a fruit tree nursery in Pennsylvania, will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at the Mount Olivet United Brethren Church in Gurnsey, Pa.
Mr. Slaybaugh, who was 85, died Tuesday of cancer at his home on Alabama Road in Towson.
He retired in 1970 after 40 years with Procter & Gamble.
A native of Gurnsey, he majored in chemistry before his graduation from Gettysburg College in 1930.
For 48 years, he was a partner in Slaybaugh Brothers, a fruit tree nursery in Aspers, Pa., near Gettysburg.
A member of the Towson Presbyterian Church, he also belonged to the Pennsylvania Peach Growers Council and other horticultural groups.
He is survived by his wife, Eva V. Slaybaugh; two sons, George E. Slaybaugh of Maryport, England, and Earl E. Slaybaugh Jr. of Towson; three sisters, Isabelle Guise of Camp Hill, Pa., Pearl Starry of Oxford, Pa., and Marguerite Kennedy of Aspers; two brothers, Raymond Slaybaugh of Aspers and Clair Slaybaugh of Idaville, Pa.; and five grandchildren. Services for Kenneth W. Musselman Sr., a retired tractor-trailer driver, will be held at 9 a.m. today at the Barranco and Sons Funeral Home, Ritchie Highway and Robinson Road in Severna Park.
Mr. Musselman, who lived in Severna Park, died Wednesday of heart failure at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. He was 68.
He retired about five years ago after 38 years with Matlack Inc.
Mr. Musselman was a native of Glen Burnie and a graduate of the Glen Burnie High School. He served in the Army during World War II.
His hobbies included making clock cases out of driftwood, crabbing and gardening.
He is survived by his wife of more than 45 years, the former Evelyn Littleton; four sons, Kenneth Musselman Jr. of Arnold, Russell Musselman of Tampa, Fla., and Michael and Richard Musselman, both of Glen Burnie; two brothers, Roland Musselman of Severna Park and Walton Musselman of St. Petersburg, Fla.; seven grandsons; and five great-grandchildren.