Mr. Henry Furlong Baldwin died on Dec. 7, 2024, at Eyre Hall, his family’s National Historic Landmark home for 10 generations on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. He was 92.
The son of Henry DuPont Baldwin and Margaret Eyre Taylor Baldwin, Furlong, or Baldy as he was often called, was born in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, whose board he later chaired.
Furlong attended Calvert School and graduated from Gilman School. He completed his academic pursuits at Princeton University, where he was a member of the Ivy Club, graduating in the class of 1954 with a degree in history. He entered the U.S. Marine Corps and received an honorable discharge as a first lieutenant.
His 47-year career with the Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Company began in 1956. He was named president at the age of 38. Furlong retired in 2003 as chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Mercantile Bankshares Corporation. Relying on his philosophy of steady growth through conservative management, he combined 21 separate banks with nearly 200 branches in four states.
Furlong, in his impeccably tailored suits and trademark collar pin, shared the board rooms of more than 20 public and private companies, many of them now absorbed into larger corporations. Among them were CSX Corporation, W.R. Grace & Co., St. Paul Travelers Companies, Inc., Platinum Underwriters’ Holdings, Conrail, Allegheny Energy, Inc., Constellation Energy Group, Inc., USF&G Corporation, Fairchild Space & Defense, the Orioles, and the Wills Group. On retirement from banking, he served as chairman of NASDAQ for 10 years.
A focused and disciplined problem solver, Furlong was sought for his management experience and ability to navigate to consensus thorny corporate and organizational problems. He rarely wavered in decision making, and his decisive and quick thinking were universally relied upon. His ready supply of folksy aphorisms were welcome additions to conversation, both formal and casual.
For several years, he was a member of the Maryland General Assembly Spending Affordability Committee. He led several business and civic missions to Israel with The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore. He was a member of the boards of the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Baltimore-Washington Regional Association.
He contributed his management skills to the boards of Johns Hopkins University, Washington College, Gilman School, and St. Timothy’s School.
Furlong was the recipient of the Historic St. Mary’s City Maryland Cross Bottony, the Maryland House of Delegates Speaker’s Medallion, the Johns Hopkins University Heritage Award, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. The H. Furlong Baldwin Library of the Maryland Center for History and Culture honors his contributions to Maryland history. He is a member of the Baltimore Sun Business and Civic Hall of Fame and received an Outstanding Director Award from the Baltimore Business Journal.
A student and lover of history, Furlong served on the boards of the Virginia Historical Society (now Virginia Museum of History and Culture), the Maryland Historical Society (now Maryland Center for History and Culture), George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and Stratford Hall. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Recently, he commissioned an extensive publication on the history of his family home, its collections, and those who lived there. He was a student of his family genealogy. By opening Eyre Hall for the annual Historic Garden Week in Virginia and by perpetually welcoming the public to its historic gardens, he shared his home with thousands of people over many decades.
He was a member of the Maryland Club, of which his grandfather, Severn Eyre, had been a founding member, and the Elkridge Club. He was a founding member of Caves Valley Golf Club and The Links in New York City.
An accomplished and competitive athlete, Furlong played varsity lacrosse at Princeton on its national championship team, where he was All- American in 1954. He also played for Baltimore’s Mount Washington Lacrosse Club.
An avid hunter of waterfowl and game birds, he especially enjoyed trips to the U.K., South America, and Georgia. He was a longtime member of the Swan Island Club on Currituck Sound in North Carolina. He also enjoyed boating including sailing his Hampton One Design, Cousin Marg, and later his Hinckley, Gracia, and cruising his dead rise work boat, Paramour.
He is survived by a son, Severn Eyre Baldwin, of Eyre Hall farm, Cheriton; a daughter, Mary Stevenson Baldwin of Chelsea, Mass.; a granddaughter, Grace Woodward Eyre Baldwin, of New York City; and several cousins. He also leaves his companion of 37 years, Louise Hayman, of Annapolis, Md. A sister, Mary Eyre Baldwin Peacock, predeceased him.
A memorial reception will be held at Mimosa Barn, 20031 Oakland Farm Road, Cape Charles, at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 11. Burial in the family graveyard at Eyre Hall will be private.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Cape Charles Rosenwald School, https://ccrosenwaldschool.org/; Roca, Inc., https://rocainc.org/; or Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/
Services to assist Furlong’s family in honoring his life are being provided by Williams Funeral Home, Onancock, www.williamsfuneralhomes.com
