Learn more about how their friendship started on the Eastern Shore in “CATALYST” magazine.
During his inauguration in November 2021, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, talked about how the University would meet the challenges of the future. He announced that his lifelong friend, Lawrence Hayman, chairman of H&M Bay, Inc., a logistics and storage company based on the Eastern Shore, where they both grew up, had pledged nearly $18 million to create two endowments at UMB.
“That is a wonderful gift,” Dr. Jarrell said. “That’s a commitment to UMB. That’s a commitment to Maryland.”
CATALYST magazine asked Dr. Jarrell to talk about the friendship with Hayman that inspired this gift to UMB.
I grew up in a small farming town on the Eastern Shore. My parents were a farmer and a teacher, and I went to school in a two-room schoolhouse in Goldsboro. When the county closed the schoolhouse, I transferred schools. It was there in the fourth-grade classroom that I met Lawrence Hayman. Many of my classmates — like Lawrence — had to miss class to help take care of things on the farm. There was little to no industry around that wasn’t farming. My parents instilled in me a commitment to education. Yes, I had chores to do at home, but my education was a priority. People worked hard. School was the glue in our community.
Lawrence and I went to elementary school, junior high, and high school together. In high school — where Lawrence and I played basketball together — my world opened up when my physics teacher, Mr. Walsh, engaged me. He helped me realize that everyone has the capacity to think, question, and solve problems.
I firmly believe that today. In fact, many of the values that came from my small-town community guide me today:
- Hard work
- Determination
- Humility
- Commitment to each other
In 1965, Lawrence and I went our different ways. I went off to college and he went into, in his own words, “the world of hard knocks.” He started a career as a long-haul transporter of frozen and refrigerated food products. After 15 years, he carved a niche in the brokerage market when he started his own business. His work ethic guided the business to great success. He and a partner formed H&M Bay, Inc., and together they built one of the premier brokerage operations in the industry.
It was at one of our high school reunions where Lawrence and I reconnected. That began a 30-year conversation about how we could give back and really make an impact where we were raised.
Learn more about how the two friends are giving back to the community in CATALYST magazine.
You can read the Spring 2022 issue of CATALYST magazine, which highlights the incredible work done by School of Medicine scientists and clinicians who successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig heart in a patient who survived for two months. We also share stories about law school alumnus Tamika Tremaglio, who now leads the National Basketball Players Association; Wendy Shaia, executive director of the School of Social Work’s Social Work Community Outreach Service; the UMB CURE Scholars Program’s first cohort going to college; and much, much more!