Page 27 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

[1931-1945]
A new and sometimes frustrating period for Cap began on June 1,
1931, when he brought his
son Norman Rukert Sr. down to the waterfront. The young man, who had
just graduated from Baltimore City College high school two weeks before his 16th birthday, was more interested in going to college or starting a career
in baseball than learning the ropes of his father’s business. Even the diversionary tactic of sending young Norman on a trip to Galveston and Houston on the S/S (steamship) El Estero, one of the Morgan line freighters, did not change Norman’s dreams.
Like his father, Norman was strong-willed. His nephew Bud Nixon remembers him as a “hell- raiser, but in a productive sort of a way that counts in business.” Between the summer of 1931 and 1932, Norman holds the company’s (and possibly Baltimore harbor’s) record for being fired. But the young man had a secret angel; every time his father would send him home, his mother Blanche would immediately send him back to work. Norman did learn a valuable lesson during this period: it was much easier riding back and forth on the streetcar than working sunrise to sunset as a laborer on the docks. In the fall of 1932, Cap hired
another young man, his nephew, Harry
Routson Jr., to work and commiserate
with Norman. Much later, Norman
recalled that “it was 10 years before
I pushed anything as small and light as
a pencil.”
During the 1930s, Rukert Terminals was lucky to have the Morgan Line and the
French and German potash accounts. These accounts helped the firm weather the lean years of the Great Depression. With the intercoastal business increasing, it was necessary to enlarge the pier at Jackson’s Wharf. Heyward Boyce at the bank, which was now the Maryland Trust Company, approved an $8,000 short-term loan on April 22, 1933, which allowed Cap to begin the project. The pier was extended by 50 feet
PART I THE RUKERT STORY
The Lean Years and a War Economy
ABOVE & LEFT: The S/S (steamship) El Estero, on which a young Norman Sr. traveled to Galveston
and Houston.
FACING PAGE:
The Lyndhurst Athletic Club Blue Jays baseball team. Norman Sr. is in the center of the front row.
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