Page 16 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

CAMP HOLABIRD & COLGATE WAREHOUSES DURING WORLD WAR I
CAMP HOLABIRD, NOW KNOWN AS FORT HOLABIRD, WAS LOCATED ON 96 ACRES NEAR COLGATE CREEK IN SOUTHEAST BALTIMORE.
It was founded in 1917 as an Army motor transport training center and depot. During World War I, military vehicles bound for overseas were assembled and stored at Camp Holabird. In this photo taken during his training at Camp Holabird, Captain W.G.N. Rukert (Cap) is seated in the front row. His independent streak on full display, he is the only man sitting with his feet crossed. This striking image is the earliest surviving photo of Cap Rukert.
Cap Rukert’s experience in warehousing likely spared him from service in war-torn France. As he was preparing to ship out, Rukert was selected to run the Colgate Storage Warehouses in Baltimore. The Colgate Warehouses were four buildings constructed by the United States government during World War I on property owned by the Canton Company. Supplies ranging from flour to shovels to uniforms were stored in
the Colgate Warehouses before being shipped to Europe. Today, the property is a container yard, located directly across from Rukert Terminals’ Riverview warehouse complex.
Norman served in the Quartermaster Corps from June 1918 to September 1919, helping to ship vehicles and other war supplies to Europe as World War I was waning. His wartime service coincided with the arrival of the influenza pandemic in Baltimore. In September of 1918, outbreaks were reported at Camp Meade and Fort McHenry. By October, cases among civilians were overwhelming Baltimore hospitals and closing schools. After his discharge from the Army, Norman took a position as Warehouse Superintendent at the Block Street Wharf and Warehouse Company in Fells Point.
Norman’s time with the Army gave him invalu- able leadership experience, but it also became the source of his lifelong nickname. The name was “Cap,” and while later generations always assumed that it was a title referring to Norman’s maritime expertise and experience, it had nothing to do with the sea or ships. In fact, Captain W.G. Norman Rukert could not even swim! Instead, the moniker derived from his brief but transformative military service, during which he had 1,200 men serving under him.
Decades later, during a television interview with Helen Delich Bentley, Cap said his experience in WWI gave him the “confidence and part of the know-how to command men and accomplish things in a true business-like way.” In another interview, he put it more plainly: “I thought I was a hot shot. If
I could do it for the Army, I could do it for myself.”
Cap didn’t venture into the new world of business completely by himself: he was joined by his younger
b
r
b
r
t
J
r
r
o
o
t
t
h
h
e
er
r
,
G
r. George was born in 1892,
,
Ge
e
o
o
r
r
g
g
e
R
e
R
u
u
k
k
e
e
r
t
J
8
LEFT: Cap Rukert’s Colgate Warehouse cargo binder from World War I