Page 17 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

“I thought I was a hot shot. If I could do it for the Army, I could do it for myself.”
— W.G. Norman “Cap” Rukert
PART I THE RUKERT STORY
and like Cap, he attended an English-German public school until the eighth grade. His dad got him a job, too, as a clerk with the Pennsylvania Railroad at the President Street Station, famed as the station where President Lincoln arrived on a special train in the middle of the night en route to his first inaugural.
After several years, George became unhappy with his salary and decided to do something about the situation. He knew that men who typed waybills were paid per waybill, so he borrowed a typewriter, took it home and practiced for the next six months. When the first vacancy occurred in the waybill department, George applied for and was given the job. Now a very fast typist, George was soon making more money than the
general agent of the
freight station. Shortly
after, the Pennsylvania
Railroad abruptly
stopped paying per
waybill. When World
War I was declared,
George immediately
joined the Navy and
served until the fall
of 1920.
LEFT: Workers move war supplies with a motorized pallet jack at the Colgate Warehouse.
BELOW: Cap Rukert's brother George worked
at the Pennsylvania Railroad's President
Street Station, famed
as the place where President Lincoln arrived in Baltimore en route to his first inauguration.
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