Alexander H. ‘Sandy’ Hoon, steel executive
Alexander H. “Sandy” Hoon, a retired Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. executive who with his wife restored a historic Eastern Shore home, died Sunday of complications from a stroke at the Heron Point retirement community in Chestertown.
He was 91.
The son of Dr. Merle Russell Hoon, a surgeon, and Marian Holliday Hoon, a homemaker, Alexander Holliday Hoon was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1946 from Shady Side Academy.
After graduating from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., in 1950, he served in the Marine Corps as a first lieutenant in Korea. He was discharged in 1953.
Mr. Hoon, who was known as Sandy, he began his career in 1953 as a salesman for Jones & Laughlin and later became general manager of its Pittsburgh works.
While living in Pittsburgh, he was a member of Oakmont Country Club, the Duquesne Club and Fox Chapel Country Club.
After retiring from Jones & Laughlin in 1979, he and his wife, the former Ann Wilmer, whom he married in 1951, moved to Thornton, a home and farm overlooking Morgan Creek, a tributary of the Chester River, near Chestertown, that had been in his wife’s family since 1692.
“She was the 11th owner of the 300-acre farm,” said a son, Philip W. Hoon, a lawyer and Chestertown resident. “The house, which they did a full and careful restoration of, was built in 1815. Thornton was the love of their life.”
During the 25 years he and his wife lived at Thornton, Mr. Hoon was the founder and principal of the Chesapeake Land Co., and also managed family farms.
In the 1980s, he was a co-founder of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and served as a director for many years. He also was a co-founder of the 1782 Society of Washington College.
Mr. Hoon had served on the board of directors of the Kent County Public Library, Magnolia Hall and the Chesapeake Bank & Trust Co.
He was a member of the Chester River Yacht & Country Club and was a founding member of The River Club and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Since 2004, the couple had lived at Heron Point. Mrs. Hoon died in 2016.
Mr. Hoon was a communicant of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 101 N. Cross St., Chestertown, where a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. June 24.
In addition to his son, Mr. Hoon is survived by another son, Dr. Alexander Holliday Hoon Jr. of Ellicott City; seven grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Another son, David McGill Hoon, died in 2011.