H. Furlong Baldwin ’54

Baldy died Dec. 7, 2024, in his ancestral home, Eyre Hall, on Virginia’s Eastern shore.

He prepared at Gilman School and was active in football, basketball, and lacrosse. At Princeton, he majored in history, joined Ivy Club, and participated in the Advisee Project and the Platoon Leader Class. He was an All-American lacrosse player in 1954. His interests included sailing and farming.

Baldy served in the Marine Corps for two years before joining the Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Co. as a teller and attending the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University. In 1968, he became a director of Mercantile Safe, then president of the bank, and he retired as president and chief executive of Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in 2001. He also served as chair of NASDAQ for 10 years.

Named to The Baltimore Sun’s Business and Civic Hall of Fame in 2020, Baldy was deeply engaged in the Baltimore community and elsewhere, serving as chair of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s board of trustees and on the boards of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and Stratford Hall. He helped raise funds for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Walters Art Museum.

He is survived by his companion of 37 years, Louise Hayman; son Severn Eyre; daughter Mary; and one granddaughter.