FLOTILLA 5NR-12-SEAFORD

2010 Newsletters

March

Art Wollschlager, FSO-PB

Born and raised by my parents along with two sisters in Baltimore City in the section known as Waverly, in the shadows of the now extinct Old Oriole Park and Memorial Stadium. I attended public schools including Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

Following my education, I was employed as a gas jockey at the neighborhood gas station before enlisting in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1953. After completing my training in boot camp at Cape May, I was assigned to Coast Guard Depot at Southwest Harbor Maine. During my stint at Southwest Harbor, I spent over 2 ½ years as one of the keepers on Egg Rock Light House in Frenchmen's Bay four miles out from Bar Harbor. I was also a relief keeper for many of the lighthouses in the Southwest Harbor Group. I spent my entire career at Southwest Harbor and following my honorable discharged in November 1957 my boyhood dream became true when my appointment to the Baltimore City Fire Department in May 1958 and assigned to a Fire Boat became a reality.

After completing my training at the Fire Academy, I transferred to Engine 6 in downtown Baltimore. After approximately 13 years at Engine 6, I transferred to Engine 21 in Hampden and served the rest of my career at Engine 21. While serving with Engine 21 the Fire Commissioner requested my services for the Chief of Fire Department Staff in Rules and Regulation Section, which I accepted. I received one accommodation during my 26-year career the "Distinguished Service Award" for outstanding performance.

In April 1960, I married Mary L. Rice from Tennessee, we have four children, three sons, and one daughter and now are grandparents of 11 grandchildren.

As an inherited instinct, I have always had a want to do electrical construction and control work while with the Fire Department. To fill this want, following my retirement from the fire department, went to work at Life-Like Products and later McDonald's Restaurants Maintenance Department where I obtained my master electricians license and a stationary engineer's license. For several years tried the idea of being in business for myself, before deciding to acquire employment with Baltimore County Government in the Building Maintenance Department as a Master Electrician. I remained there for 10 years before retiring in 1998 and moving across the bay to Seaford. In 2005 after meeting Wayne Hickman and subsequently became a member of this flotilla.