Maryland Publisher Is Missing From His Boat

Rescue crews searched the Chesapeake Bay for a publisher and former diplomat Sunday after his sailboat was discovered empty in the water with the engine still running.

The Coast Guard dispatched a C-130 aircraft, a helicopter and boats to assist in the search for 72-year-old Philip Merrill, who had been sailing alone Saturday.

Senior Chief Steve Carleton said the Coast Guard was operating under the assumption that Merrill fell overboard.

“When we found the boat, the engine was running and his wallet was found on board the vessel,” he said.

Ken Turner, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources police, said two boaters found Merrill’s unoccupied 41-foot sailboat.

Merrill is chairman of the board of Annapolis-based Capital-Gazette Communications Inc., which publishes Washingtonian magazine, the Capital newspaper and four other Maryland papers.

Merrill took a leave from his publishing duties in December 2002, when Vice President Dick Cheney swore him in as president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. His term ended in July 2005.

He served as assistant secretary-general of NATO in Brussels from 1990 to 1992. From 1983 to 1990, he served on the Department of Defense Policy Board. From 1981 to 1983, he was counselor to the undersecretary of Defense for policy. In 1988, the secretary of Defense awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Service, the highest civilian honor given by the department.

Merrill has represented the United States in negotiations on the Law of the Sea Conference, the International Telecommunications Union, and various disarmament and exchange agreements with the former Soviet Union. He is a former special assistant to the deputy secretary of State.

The college of journalism at the University of Maryland was named for him, as was the headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation -- both after multimillion-dollar donations.

Merrill graduated from Cornell University and the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development.