On August 27, the St. Mary’s County Department of Economic and Community Development held a breakfast event at the J.T. Daugherty Center in Lexington Park. A crowd of over 200 listened to a panel of individuals who have been instrumental in the growth and success of St. Mary’s County.
Tom Daugherty, president of Maryland Bank and Trust, acted as the Moderator for the breakfast and panel discussion. The panel consisted of Walter R. Blair, Jr., founder of Blair’s Gifts and Catalog Showrooms, Elmer J. Brown, Sr., founder of BMS, Inc. and former Public Housing Manager for St. Mary’s County, Ben Burroughs, Jr. founder of the Farmers Market and Auction, George A. Guy, founder of Guy Distributing, J. Frank Raley, Jr., founder of the Tri-County Council, H. Thomas Waring president and chief executive officers of Cherry Cove and Robert ‘Bob’ E. Waxman, senior consultant at The MIL Corporation.
Those in attendance enjoyed listening to the panel speak. When asked about the effectiveness of this economic effort, Del. John Bohanan said, “It is always beneficial to hear the historical perspective of how the earlier days of our present economy was built and to hear directly from some of those individuals who have spent literally decades building businesses for any business or community leader today.”
In closing Bob Schaller expressed his view that this event was only the start of more meaningful business development efforts to come.
