Frances Pine (1916-2007) and Joseph B. Stevens, Jr.
Theirs was a love that began with a blind date more than six decades ago. A meeting arranged by Joseph B. Stevens, Jr.’s Yale friends and Frances Pine’s friend Peggy Mahoney ultimately led to a union of two great families, one that shaped the American sports experience and one that shaped the history of Gilman School.
Joseph Stevens’ grandfather, Harry M. Stevens, is considered the “father of sports foodservice.” Those elements that modern baseball fans take for granted—scorecards, the sale of hot dogs and peanuts by roaming vendors—were all the inventions of Harry Stevens near the turn of the 20th century.
It was the family-owned company, Harry M. Stevens, Inc., that sent Joseph Stevens from New York to Baltimore in the fall of 1938. The company held the concession contracts at all of the Maryland racetracks-Timonium, Havre de Grace, Laurel, Bowie and Pimlico.
“The plan was to always have a member of the Stevens family where we were operating,” says Joseph Stevens.
Joseph Stevens first turned up on Frances Pine’s Deepdene Road doorstep for an introduction that led to a movie first date, a wedding ceremony at Roland Park Presbyterian Church on a snowy February 2, 1940, three children and five grandchildren.
“He was a keeper,” said Frances Stevens, who passed away in 2007. “I knew one when I saw one.”
Frances Pine Stevens’ Gilman roots ran deep. The daughter of Headmaster Frank W. Pine and his wife Mabel Durant Pine, she was born on campus on March 22, 1916. Her father served as headmaster until his unexpected death in 1919.
Her brother was beloved faculty member James C. Pine ’21, who died in 2006 at age 101. James Pine taught at Gilman from 1929 until 1970, chairing the history department for 30 years. Her other brothers Calvin D. Pine and Jonathan Woodward Pine were members of the classes of 1924 and 1932 respectively. Her nephews are Frank W. Pine ’59, Robert G. Pine ’64 and Jonathan W. Pine Jr. ’75; her great-nephews are Colin K. Pine ’92 and Jonathan W. Pine III ’12.
Frances and Joseph Stevens solidified their families’ legacies at Gilman with a planned gift.
The Stevenses’ gift annuity residuum will add to the Frank W. and Mabel Durant Pine Scholarship, established in 1972 by James Pine in memory of his parents. At the time, the family goal was to bring the fund’s corpus to $100,000. Once the gift annuity is added, the scholarship will top the $350,000 necessary for an endowed full scholarship.
“I really wanted to see the scholarship grow,” says Joseph Stevens, who was quite close with his mother-in-law, Mabel Durant Pine. “The Pines are a great family and Gilman is a great school.
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