An article in yesterday's Business section incorrectly stated the quarterly dividend to be paid by Mercantile Bankshares Corp. The dividend is 20 cents per share, to be paid Dec. 31 to shareholders of record Dec. 23.
The Sun regrets the error.
Douglas W. Dodge, the longtime president of the Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Co., announced yesterday that he will retire in June.
The company's parent, Mercantile Bankshares Corp., also said that it would begin to buy back as many as 2 million shares of its common stock.
Mr. Dodge, 62, has been president of Merc-Safe since 1983. A native of Nyack, N.Y., he joined the Baltimore-based banking company in 1969, after 13 years at Hanover Bank in New York. Mr. Dodge also is vice chairman of Mercantile Bankshares, one of the few remaining locally headquartered banking companies. Mercantile has $5.6 billion in assets.
"Mercantile owes much of its success to Doug Dodge," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer H. Furlong Baldwin said in a statement. "His installation of a credit culture at Mercantile was responsible for our weathering, in good style, the problems that pervaded our industry in the early 1990s.
"His many contributions during his 25 years at Mercantile have been significant both to our company and the banking industry," Mr. Baldwin said.
Mr. Dodge was not available for comment yesterday.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Mr. Dodge received a master's degree in business administration from New York University.
He has served as a director of the American Bankers Association, and as chairman of its Banking Professions Council. He was president of the Maryland Bankers Association and Robert Morris Associates, a national loan and credit organization.
Closer to home, Mr. Dodge is a board member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Union Memorial Hospital and the Center Club. He is a trustee and past chairman of both Goucher College and Neighborhood Housing Services.
Mercantile also announced yesterday that it will buy back as many as 2 million shares of its common stock at various times on the open market.
After a previously announced program to buy 410,000 shares, the buyback could amount to 5.4 percent of the company's outstanding shares.
Mercantile also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 30 cents a share. It will be paid Dec. 31 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 23. The company's stock closed yesterday at $19.125, up 75 cents a share.