Gerard W. Kirby
Bank executive
Gerard W. Kirby, who spent his entire career with the Provident Bank of Maryland, died Feb. 6 of cancer at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. He was 89 and had been a longtime resident of Ellicott City.
In 1923, a day after graduating from Baltimore City College, he began his banking career as a receiving teller in the old Provident Savings Bank headquarters building at Howard and Saratoga streets.
He joined the bank's mortgage department in 1926 and in 1944 was promoted to assistant treasurer. In 1960, he was appointed senior vice president. He retired in 1970 as senior vice president and head of the mortgage department but served as a board member until 1976.
Known as one of the city's most respected bankers, he was a member of the Home Builders Association of Maryland, the Maryland Bankers Association and the National Association of Mutual Savings Banks.
He was described by a grandson, David Kirby of Catonsville, as being "a likable, honest man that people trusted."
Known as "Kirb" or "Boke," he served in the Maryland National Guard in the 1930s. During World War II, he was a civil defense air raid warden in the Edmondson Village section of the city.
He was born and reared in Hamilton and was a loyal fan of both the Orioles and the Colts.
He was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club, the Normandy Heights Association, the Howard County Board of Trade and the Howard County Historical Society.
Other survivors include his wife of 64 years, the former Louise Dorsey of the Charlestown Retirement Community; a son, John D. Kirby of Lisbon; two sisters; six other grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian burial was offered Thursday. Milton C. Mobley Jr., a retired electrical engineer, died Thursday at Laurel Regional Hospital after a heart attack. The Laurel resident was 80.
He retired in 1979 as chief of the laboratory division of the Federal Communications Commission at Savage. He went to work for the agency in 1939 in Baltimore and was assigned to the Savage facility two years later.
He worked for the Mississippi State Highway Department and the Army Corps of Engineers before joining the FCC.
He served in the Coast Guard and worked on the development of radar during World War II.
A native of Ruby, Miss., he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Mississippi State University in 1933.
Services were to be held at 10 a.m. today at the Fleck Funeral Home in Laurel.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, the former Sara Holliday; a son, Milton Cannon Mobley III of Menlo Park, Calif.; a daughter, Eileen O'Neil Mobley Fitzgerald of Audubon, Pa.; two brothers, Leonard A. Mobley of Mineral, Va., and Joseph O. Mobley of Starkville, Miss.; and a sister, Julie Mobley Boone of Wiggins, Miss.
A. Victor Taylor
Store operator
A. Victor Taylor, retired operator of a kitchen equipment store, died Saturday of cancer at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown. The Pikesville resident was 85.
The Baltimore native helped organize the Taylor Furniture Co., a family business, in 1928. In 1934, he opened his own business, Taylor's Clothing, Furniture & Kitchens. By the time he retired in 1978, it had become two businesses, Taylor's Kitchens on East Monument Street and a women's clothing store next door operated by his wife.
After he retired, he became active in the Service Corps for Retired Executives, helping people starting out in business and conducting seminars on home improvements and kitchen design for those entering those businesses.
A member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation since 1936, he worked with the youth group for 15 years and was an usher for the High Holy Days for 50 years. He was also a member of the congregation's Prime Timers, a senior citizens group.
For 13 years, he was a board member of the Bonnie View Country Club.
Mr. Taylor was also a board member of the Save-A-Heart Foundation and raised more than $33,000 to purchase and furnish two rooms at the Northwest Hospital Center and one room at Sinai Hospital.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, the former Lillian Sugar; a son, Jerome Taylor of Pikesville; a daughter, Phyllis Ann Taylor Bass of Pikesville; a sister, Jean Small of Baltimore; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Services were held yesterday .
James E. Kane III, 56, president of a company that manufactures metal fittings, died Jan. 28 at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh after a stroke.
Services for the Towson native were private. He is survived by his wife of 34 years, the former Mari Mayhan of New Wilmington, Pa.; a son, Colin E. Kane, a student at Bucknell University; a daughter, Megan Bowman of Greenbelt; his mother, E. Catherine Kane of Towson; and a brother, John B. Kane of Bel Air.
Memorial donations may be made to the New Wilmington Area Soccer Program, c/o First Western Bank, 108 S. Market St., New Wilmington, Pa. 16142.
Evelyn Hudson Durling, 83, a native of Baltimore who did secretarial work, died Jan. 30 of liver failure in Playa del Rey, Calif., where she had moved in 1959 to pursue her interest in the teachings of the late William W. Walter, a Christian Science practitioner.
Services for the former Evelyn Hudson were private. Her husband, Robert Sayers Durling, died in 1989. She is survived by two sons, Robert S. Durling Jr. of Riviera Beach and James S. Durling of Palmdale, Calif.; a daughter, Evelyn Ziething of Chula Vista, Calif., and Buena Vista, Mexico; six grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
Charles J. "Pat" Donohue, , 78, a retired plumber and Perry Hall resident, died Thursday of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in Dulaney Valley.
A Mass of Christian burial was offered yesterday.
He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Margaret "Betty" Donohue; a sister, Agnes Bordes of Westminster; and nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews; his wife's relatives, Marie and Joseph Rosenberger of Bel Air; Mary and Tony Winctzak of Boothwyn, Pa.; and Catherine Orzolek and Irma Mullen, both of Baltimore.