Philip Merrill
Philip Merrill (April 28, 1934—10 June 2006) was an American diplomat, publisher, banker, and philanthropist who committed suicide while traveling alone on his boat in the Chesapeake Bay.
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[edit] Career and philanthropy
Born Philip Merrill Levine, he was a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School. At Cornell, he was managing editor of The Cornell Daily Sun and a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He was president and CEO of Capital-Gazette Communications, Inc., which publishes Washingtonian magazine, the Annapolis Capital, and five other Maryland newspapers. His wife, Eleanor, succeeded him as chairman of the company; their daughter Catherine Merrill Williams is president and publisher of the Washingtonian.[1]
Merrill served as counselor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy from 1981 to 1983; as a member of the Defense Policy Board from 1983 to 1990; and as Assistant Secretary General for Defence Support at NATO Headquarters in Brussels from 1990 to 1992 under President George H. W. Bush. He was appointed to chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States by George W. Bush, serving from 2002 to 2005.
In 1988, he received the Medal for Distinguished Service from the then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
Merrill donated $7 million dollars to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Chesapeake Bay Foundation to build their headquarters which was awarded the first LEED platinum certificate in the country. It is named the Philip Merrill Center. In 2001, Merrill donated $10 million to the College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, which now bears his name. He also donated $4 million in 2003 to create the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Eliot A. Cohen.[2] is the director of the Merrill Center.
[edit] Death
Merrill disappeared while sailing alone on the Chesapeake Bay on June 10, 2006. He was initially believed to have been lost at sea, and his body was found on June 19. It was believed to be a suicide.
[edit] References
- ^ "Washingtonian Masthead". Washingtonian. Capital-Gazette Communications, Inc. (Catherine Merrill Williams). http://www.washingtonian.com/masthead.html. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
- ^ "Philip Merrill". Right Web. 2006-07-13. http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/merrill/merrill.php. Retrieved 2006-07-20.
[edit] External links
- Medical examiner rules Merrill's death a suicide
- Merrill's biography at Right-Web
- Merrill's biography at UMCP
- Philip Merrill Memorial Service
- CNN story on Merrill's disappearance
- New York Times "Philip Merrill, 72, Publisher and Ex-Diplomat, Is Dead" June 14 2006
- Philip Merrill, 72; Philanthropist Made a Fortune From Media Holdings and Was a NATO Diplomat
- Philanthropy, Philip Merrill, RIP
- William Colby, Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from September 1973, to January 1976.
