Harold Van Buskirk (February 20, 1894 – October 25, 1980) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...

champion, and a three-time member of the US Olympic fencing team. During World War I, he was the officer in charge of the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Camouflage Section, which designed and tested

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

for American ships, both military and civilian (Van Buskirk 1919).

Early years

Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, his birth name was Charles Harold Van Buskirk. He attended college at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, where he earned a BS in architecture in 1915, and fenced for the University of Pennsylvania Quakers.

Camouflage service

During World War I, Van Buskirk was a lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve Force. Initially connected with the Submarine Defense Association, in March 1918 he was put in charge of the Camouflage Section, a newly formed government unit within the

Bureau of Construction and Repair The Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) was the part of the United States Navy which from 1862 to 1940 was responsible for supervising the design, construction, conversion, procurement, maintenance, and repair of ships and other craft for the ...

(Skerrett 1919:101). The Camouflage Section had two subsections, the Design Subsection (located in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

) and the Research Subsection (located at Eastman Kodak Laboratories in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

). The former, which was largely made up of artists, was led by a painter named

Everett L. Warner Everett Longley Warner (July 16, 1877 – October 20, 1963) was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker, as well as a leading contributor to US Navy camouflage during both World Wars. Early years Warner was born in the small town of ...

, while the latter, whose members where mostly scientists, was under the direction of Eastman Kodak's head physicist,

Loyd A. Jones Loyd Ancile Jones (April 12, 1884 – May 15, 1954) was an American scientist who worked for Eastman Kodak Company, where he was head of its physics department for many years. During World War I, he was also a major contributor to the development ...

(Warner 1919:105-106). Van Buskirk was the executive head of the two subsections, which included making certain that the patterns produced by these units were being correctly adapted to merchant ships by civilian painters. The task of commissioning painters to apply dazzle camouflage patterns to the ships was given to a civilian agency, the

Emergency Fleet Corporation The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917 pursuant to the Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant shi ...

(Van Buskirk 1919:227).

Fencing career

Van Buskirk's skills as a fencer led to his being a member of the US Olympic fencing team in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

and

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...

, competing with the sabre. In 1927, he was the US National Champion with the épée. His wife Evelyn was also a fencing champion. In 1944, the Van Buskirks moved to Houston, Texas, where he was a coach and instructor of fencing at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

for more than twenty years, and where, in 1968, the Van Buskirk Sabre Tournament was established. A member of the US Fencing Association (USFA) Hall of Fame, he died in Harris County, Texas, in 1980.

Notes

*Everett L. Warner, “Fooling the Iron Fish: The Inside Story of Marine Camouflage” in ''Everybody’s Magazine'' (November 1919), pp. 102–109. *Robert G. Skerrett, “How We Put It Over on the Periscope” in ''The Rudder'' (March 1919), pp. 97–102; (April 1919), pp. 175–179. *Harold Van Buskirk, “Camouflage” in ''Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society'' 14 (July 21, 1919), pp. 225–232.

References

External links