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Throughout his life, Berthold was known by the abbreviated form of his name: Bert. His baptismal certificate from Fourteen Holy Martyrs indicates that his middle name was William. However, there is no other evidence to support this, and all other documents list him as Berthold Theodore. When he was a child, Bert lost one eye while playing (he was hit, accidentally, with a stick). He wore a glass eye through most of his life. He used to tell tales of school mischief, when he would cover his real eye (which was closed) with his hand, effectively being able to sleep in class while his teacher saw an "open" eye. Another childhood adventure saw Bert (along with his brother Mike) being chased by a bull ... an event that got their pictures in the newspaper. From these stories (and others) we can assume that Bert was a bit of a ruffian as a child. In June, 1929 (at the age of 16), Bert traveled to Annapolis and stayed long enough to send a postcard to his mother informing her that he had arrived safely. The reason for the trip is unknown. In today's interstate and internet world, it's difficult to imagine sending a postcard from Annapolis to Baltimore, a distance of about 50 miles or less. In 1936, Bert traveled to New York City with his father. He sent postcards to both his mother and brother, copies of which are in this author's possession. Whether the trip was a vacation or somehow involved business remains unknown. A few short years after their marriage, Bert and Helen moved into their home at 3 N. Prospect Avenue in Catonsville, MD. It would be Bert's home for the rest of his life. Before Bert and Helen moved in, the previous occupants were Bert's brother, Michael, and his wife Betty. Bert's lack of an eye kept him out of the army during World War II. However, he served as a civilian in a war preparedness force. His daughter, Peggy, remembers that he worked for Glenn L. Martin (now Martin Marietta), making gliders. The Glenn L. Martin plant in East Baltimore was quite far from Bert's home in Catonsville, and his days were very long. He commuted via streetcar. After the war Bert worked for Metropolitan Insurance Company, a job he may have secured through his father-in-law, John Hoos, who also worked for Metropolitan Insurance (Bert may have also worked there prior to WWII). During this post-war time he furthered his education taking night classes at the Baltimore College of Commerce, where he received an Associate Degree in Business Administration on June 6, 1951. However, he never became a CPA. My first memories of my father's professional life are as an accountant working at Boulevard Motor Company in Baltimore, where he received an award as a financial manager. His daughter Peggy worked there during summers. The automobile dealership was a Lincoln-Mercury dealership; as a result, the family car was a Mercury for most of John's childhood. His daughter Peggy recalls that he would often talk of the loan difficulties people had in purchasing cars, and subsequent repossessions. Bert's boss at Boulevard Motors (possibly named Barry Carpenter) sometimes visited Bert and Helen's home. Peggy recalls that on one occasion, a spaghetti dinner, he affectionately told John that he wore his food well. Sometime in the late 1950's/early 1960's Bert took a job as an office manager for the State Employee's Credit Union. His son John worked there as well for several summers. Bert stayed there for more than a decade, but did not retire from there; in fact his departure was not entirely amicable. He spent the last few years of his professional life working for the State of Maryland's Division of Abandoned Property, and then retired on July 1, 1975. In addition to his full time job, during the 1950's and early 1960's Bert also worked one night per week (Tuesday) at the Washington Park Building and Loan. This was a neighborhood mortgage lender serving Morrel Park, where many of his wife's relatives (i.e., the Hooses and Wirts) lived. He worked there with two of his wife's uncles (Charles and Albert Wirt) and possibly several other Wirts and/or those connected to the Wirt family. His children would always look forward to his coming home after "Building and Loan" on Tuesday evenings because he often brought treats: steak subs, ice cream, and occasionally steamed crabs or crab cakes. Every Sunday Bert would visit his mother and father (Theodore and Maria Potthast), taking whichever of his children he could round-up. However, there was not much other contact with them, partially because Theodore and Maria had neither a phone nor a car. Rarely did Theodore and Maria visit with Bert and his family (or anyone else) outside of their own home. When the family vacationed, it was usually at the beach: in 1956 in Ocean City and in 1962 near the Chesapeake Bay. In the summer of 1969 the entire family gathered in Ocean City, MD, including Frances, Richard and their children, and Peggy, who managed to obtain permission from the convent to take a week's vacation. In retrospect, it may have been the last time the family was all together for good times, in good health, for any substantive amount of time. After the deaths of his parents (i.e., after 1965), Bert pusued his avocation of making furniture, bringing years of Potthast Brothers heritage back to life. He began by making grandfather clocks; I believe he made at least three of them. He also made a desk for his daughter Fran. He would spend hours in the basement of 3 N Prospect Ave (as well as in the garage where power tools were located) carrying on his family legacy, and the pieces he made were created with the same skill, attention to detail and perfection as any Potthast Brothers' piece. On November 4, 1981, Bert suffered a massive stroke and heart attack in the middle of the night. (It was not his first; that occurred twenty years earlier in May 1961). He and Helen had attended a dinner theatre performance that same evening (of "Fiddler on the Roof") with no signs of anything being wrong. He was rushed to St. Agnes Hospital in the middle of the night. No one thought he would survive the night, but he remained in the hospital for nearly two months. He died on December 20, 1981. He was scheduled to be moved out of the hospital into a nursing home on December 21, 1981. His wife Helen always believed that Bert knew the move was planned, and "decided" he wasn't going to make it.
Georg
Potthast
