Page 92 - Rukert - 100th Anniversary

TOP: Pictured at Rukert Terminals’ 85th anniversary party are Norman Sr.’s daughter MaryLynne Rukert Solomon, her husband Ron Solomon,
Cap Rukert’s daughter Dorothy Rukert Nixon and Dorothy’s son Charles “Nick” Nixon.
ABOVE: Samantha Rukert working in Building 22 in the Summer of 1996
RIGHT: Shaun Rukert and Andy Nixon as teenagers working at Lazaretto in the summer of 1987
growth. Between 1981 and 1996, Rukert Terminals purchased 55 acres of property on the Canton waterfront, resulting in a total footprint of 102 acres. Now discharging 130 ships per year at four berths, annual tonnage grew to 1.5 million tons.
Shortly before Christmas 1996, Dorothy Rukert Nixon, Cap’s oldest and only surviving child, died at the age of 87. Her father and her uncle had started the family business when she was a child. Being born a daughter, not a son, in the early 20th century meant that Dorothy was shielded from the waterfront operations and limited to secretarial work. In the decades that followed, she watched her brother Norman, her nephew Norm and her son Bud take the reins of Rukert Terminals. Dorothy was a steady presence on the company’s Board of Directors for decades, giving the family a cherished connection to the past. In her final years, Dorothy’s grandson Andy and great-nephew Shaun spent summers working outside at the terminal. And in
a sign of the changing times, Dorothy lived to see her great-niece Samantha become the company’s first female laborer and first female family member to take part in the Rukert summer tradition of sweeping, sweat and sunburn on the waterfront.
In 1997, Norm Rukert was named Port Leader of the Year by the Baltimore Junior Association of Commerce, 21 years after his father Norman Sr. had received the same award. As the third-generation President of Rukert Terminals, Norm made his mark as a builder with a passion for expanding, improving and modernizing the terminal. Between 1977 and 1997, annual tonnage doubled and Rukert Terminals’ footprint in Canton grew from 12 to
102 acres! In those 20 years, Norm Rukert oversaw construction of 13 new storage buildings, a new scale house and a main office totaling 270,000 square feet. In his acceptance speech, Norm shared
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