The BPF board sadly announces that our communications head, William
"Bill" Toohey, has recently passed away. He came to Baltimore as a
reporter, then interim news director, and eventually evening news
anchor for the old Johns Hopkins radio station WJHU, now WYPR. He
worked as a city spokesman, then was part of Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s
staff and later worked for Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes. Bill was the
Baltimore County police spokesman for years and eventually went to
work as the communications director for the Governor’s Office of Crime
Control and Prevention. He also taught communications at Towson
University. "Bill Toohey was an old school kind of guy with absolute
integrity and the highest standard of professionalism," Barbara
Mikulski said. "He was a man with such generosity, always there with a
kind word and helping hand." Thank you, Bill, for all the time and
effort you spent making the Festival the best it could be.
