they are buried at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens

                                OLIVER TRAVERS OBITUARY

Oliver Slater “Ollie” Travers Jr., a business executive whose holdings included wheelbarrow manufacturing and who co-founded a charitable foundation to aid Baltimore’s poor and other causes, died of leukemia Oct. 23 at Gilchrist Hospice Towson. He was 93 and lived in the Hampton section of Towson.

Born in Baltimore and raised in Wiltondale, he was the son of Oliver S. Travers Sr., an engineer, and his wife, Stacey Lair. His family traced its Maryland roots to Porto Bello, a home in St. Mary’s County.He attended Lida Lee Tall School in Towson and studied at Drexel University and Dartmouth College before graduating from the University of Maryland, College Park. He enlisted in the Navy and served in the Philippines.

He met his future wife, Mary Jean Schenuit, whose family owned the old Koester’s bakery and the Schenuit Rubber Co. in Woodberry, while on vacation at Ocean City.The Schenuit firm made aircraft tires during World War II. In a 1979 Sun article, Mr. Travers said that the postwar years were “very difficult” for the business he joined in mid-1950 as a vice president.

Despite his executive title, he said, “in reality I worked in the plant to learn the business.” He rose to become Schenuit’s president in 1963.

“Ollie was an absolute people person,” said a close friend, Thomas H. “Tuck” Maddux. “He saw people for what they were, not for who they were. He had a real skill for recognizing people’s talents.”

He also said, “Ollie had the ability of going into a company and selling himself and creating a positive atmosphere. Not only did he save Schenuit, he grew it.”

Mr. Travers decided to take Schenuit public in 1962 and began a restructuring of the company so that it could would be less reliant on government aircraft contracts. He purchased Jackson Manufacturing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a leading maker of wheelbarrows.

In the 1979 article, Mr. Travers said he was familiar with the Jackson firm because he sold it rubber tires for the wheelbarrows. He later bought Nelson Inc., a firm that made industrial pallets. He also invested in lawn care firms, an exercise bike maker and a patio furniture maker. Schenuit withdrew entirely from the tire business in 1978.

Mr. Travers sold what became Schenuit Industries to Allegheny Ludlum, later Allegheny International Inc., in 1980. In 1986 he became the president of Allegheny’s worldwide consumer product group, including the Sunbeam and Oster home appliance line and Wilkinson Sword, including its razor product line. He later became the firm’s chairman.His Wilkinson firm made made ceremonial swords for the Olympics and for royalty, including the one the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, wore the day of his marriage to Lady Diana Spencer.

He also negotiated the sale of the Baltimore-based Koester’s bakery, founded by Eilert and Lisette Koester, his wife’s grandparents.

Mr. Travers was featured in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal and the Pittsburgh Press.

He retired from Allegheny in 1990 and remained active in Schenuit Investments, based in Towson.

Mr. Travers served in the Young Presidents Organization and was named to the boards of Waverly Press, PH&H, and the old Maryland National Bank.

He was also board chair of the Kernan Hospital in Dickeyville, now the University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Institute. A room at the hospital is named in his honor.

Mr. Travers and his wife created an $8 million charity, the Mary Jean and Oliver Travers Foundation.

“My father believed in giving back to society and leaving the world a better place,” said his son, Robert Slater Travers of Towson. “As a father, he always told us to be involved.”

The foundation gives grants to local nonprofits, local educational institutions and environmental causes in Baltimore.

Mr. Travers was also a board member of the Baltimore Country Club. He was the club’s champion duckpin bowler and an accomplished tennis and golf player.

Mr. Travers, his wife and children enjoyed the outdoors. He was a skier and made to trips to Aspen, Colorado, and Switzerland. From 1978 to 2005, Mr. Travers took extended bicycling trips with his family along the East Coast.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Nov. 7 at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles Street.

In addition to his son, survivors include two daughters, Jean Travers Goodwin and Joan Travers Ottenritter, both of Towson; eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. A son, Thomas Schenuit Travers, died in 2005. His wife of 65 years died in 2017.

                                  MARY JEAN ElIZEBETH Rudolphi SCHENUIT TRAVERS

Mary Jean Travers, an athlete who was named to her high school’s hall of fame and was later a world traveler, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease Sept. 5 at Symphony Manor. She had lived in the Hampton section of Towson and was 85.

Born in Baltimore and knownas “MJ,” she was the daughter of Frank G. Schenuit, who founded a rubber and tire firm, and Hilda Koester, whose family owned a well-known commercial bakery. Raised in Guilford, she was a 1950 graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory School and attended what is now Barry University in Florida.”We would sit in the balcony at LeClerc Hall and watch her do her high dives. She was courageous,” said Susanne Nichols, a friend who recalled Mrs. Travers’ exploits in the Notre Dame pool. “She was a natural. She had no fears.”

In her freshman year at Notre Dame, she played on four varsity teams — field hockey, basketball, tennis and swimming. She competed in numerous swimming events and won ribbons in the diving category. She also competed at the Meadowbrook swimming pool and at the Gibson Island Club, where her name appears on its record board.

“She came up in the fourth grade — I was new in the school — she made me feel right at home, and we remained friends,” said Carol Quillen Rudolphi, a Baltimore resident. ‘I recall that day. She had blond curly hair in ringlets. She was outgoing and personable.”

In 2016 she was honored at Notre Dame Prep when the school’s tennis courts were named for her. She had been an assistant tennis coach at the school and was inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010

“Mary Jean Travers earned the admiration and respect of her teammates and all who met her,” said Sister Patricia McCarron, Notre Dame headmistress. “It was not only because of her athletic success and success in life but because of how she played the game. … She was a great teammate.”

She met her future husband, Oliver Slater Travers Jr., while vacationing at Ocean City. The couple married in 1952. She worked briefly for her father at Schenuit Rubber in Woodberry and was a model with the Loren Walters Academy. She was photographed for Bethlehem Steel Corp. ads that appeared in Time and Newsweek magazines.

Mrs. Travers went on to compete in tennis at the Baltimore Country Club and the Island Country Club in Marco Island, Fla.

She began her travels in 1952 with a lengthy trip to South America. After raising her family, she canoed the boundary waters of Minnesota and Canada. She was a certified scuba diver and made dives in the Caymans and the Great Barrier Reef. She was also an accomplished skier and made to trips to Jackson Hole, Wyo., Taos, N.M., and Switzerland.

“My mother was an adventurous lady. She trekked in Nepal at Kala Patthar,” where she viewed Mount Everest at 18,700 feet, said her son, Robert S. Travers of Towson. “She was also an accomplished bike rider.”

Shorty after China opened to the West in the 1970s, she bicycled more than 100 miles in that country. She also cycled through parts of New Zealand and Australia with family members on an around-the-world trip. She later spoke of her travels at local clubs. She also traveled overland from India into Pakistan.

Mrs. Travers was a founder of Baltimore’s Clean Harbor Committee, and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke honored her for her work.

“My mother stressed to her children the need to seek to be the best in everything you engage in.” said her son. “She also said honesty and integrity are the highest qualities to exude. She said to give back to society is a duty, not an option.”

She and her husband established a family charitable trust, the Mary Jean and Oliver Travers Foundation, which distributes funds to Baltimore’s needy.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 20 at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.

In addition to her son, she is survived by her husband of 65 years, the president of Schenuit Investments; two daughters, Jean Travers Goodwin and Joan Travers Ottenritter, both of Towson; eight grandchildren; and four great-granddchildren. A son, Thomas S.Travers, died in 2005.