Walter Tuckerman

Walter Rupert Tuckerman (1881-1961) was an American lawyer, banker, golfer, and philanthropist. Tuckerman founded the Bank of Bethesda in Bethesda, Maryland and served as its first president. He also led development of the Edgemoor neighborhood of Bethesda. Tuckerman was a direct descendent of Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. He was also a cousin of horse rider Bayard Tuckerman, Jr., an inductee into the National Racing Hall of Fame.

Tuckerman was born to Walter Cary and Florence Harding Tuckerman in Oyster Bay, New York on Long Island on December 23, 1881. After becoming orphaned, he moved to Washington, D.C. to live with Lucius Tuckerman, a wealthy grandfather. In 1899, Tuckerman graduated from Morristown School (now Morristown-Beard School) in Morristown, New Jersey. He later served as a member of the school's Board of Trustees and as president of its alumni association. The award for scholarship in Greek at Morristown School (the Walter R. Tuckerman Greek Prize) bore his name.

In 1903, Tuckerman received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He then completed his law degree at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1907. Tuckerman later served on the school's Board of Trustees. In 1952, George Washington University awarded him an honorary doctorate of laws.

Seeking a career, Tuckerman traveled to the Western United States to work as a prospector, rancher, and sheep herder in California and Nevada. While out west, he also joined the Alaskan Boundary Survey Commission in 1909. Recognizing his work with the commission, a peak along the Canada/Alaska boundary bears the name Mount Tuck. Returning to the Eastern U.S., Tuckerman began his law practice. He also took on the role of president of the Union Savings Bank, and then served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Metropolitan Bank.

In 1912, Tuckerman purchased the Watkins dairy farm in Maryland owned by Otis Watkins. Laying out a subdivision of land on a plot of 183 acres, Tuckerman named the area Edgewood, Maryland. Confusion between his Edgewood and the federal arsenal in Baltimore, Maryland meant that mail often mistakenly went to the later rather than Edgewood, Maryland. To clear up this issue Tuckerman renamed Edgewood, Maryland to Edgemoor, Maryland. He took the moor ending from a road named Moorland Lane.

Tuckerman developed a tennis and swimming club for Edgemoor called the Edgemoor Club. He later helped organize Bethesda's volunteer fire department and public library, and he contributed tracts of land to construct their buildings. Tuckerman Lane, a major street that runs through Bethesda and Rockville, Maryland bears his name. The road connected Old Georgetown Road to Black Oak Thicket, a 318-acre plot of land owned by Tuckerman.

In 1929, Tuckerman's estate housed five U.S. Senators during legislative work on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The group included Hiram Bingham III, Walter Evans Edge, George H. Moses, David A. Reed, and Frederic C. Walcott. Four of them served on the Finance Committee, which developed the bill for the act in the U.S. Senate.

Tuckerman began playing golf during his teenage years. In 1907, he won the Mid-Atlantic Amateur Golf Championship played at the Baltimore Country Club in Baltimore, Maryland. Three years later, Tuckerman won the 1910 Mid-Winter Tournament and the Spring Tournament at Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He also finished runner-up at the North and South Men's Amateur Golf Championship at Pinehurst.

In 1911, Tuckerman won the Shinnecock Hills Tournament at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York on Long Island. He later captured the Washington Metropolitan Amateur Championship in 1914 and 1923 when Chevy Chase Country Club hosted the tournament in Chevy Chase, Maryland. During his golf career, Tuckerman captured the Stockbridge Cup of the Berkshire Golf Tournament in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He also played in the U.S. Senior Golf Association Tournament and the seniors international triangular matches.

Tuckerman helped lay out the golf course at Congressional Country Club, now a club on the PGA Tour. In 1922, he co-founded Burning Tree Club, and he served as a founding member of its Board of Directors. Tuckerman also donated 30 acres to help construct the club. According to the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties, he stated that the club name symbolized trees with fiery colors characteristic of the area. Tuckerman said, "They called it Potomac, the Place of the Burning Tree".

During his golf career, Tuckerman served as president of the Middle Atlantic Golf Association and then as vice president of the U.S. Senior Golf Association. In 1958, the Mid-Atlantic Golf Association honored his service and that of Scottish-American golfer Frederick Robertson McLeod. They paid tribute to 101 combined years of service of both men during the 58th annual meeting of the association at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Tuckerman served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Church Orphanage Association of St. John's and as its corporate secretary. He served as Secretary of the Finance Committee of the American Red Cross's Washington, D.C. Chapter and chaired the Board of Trustees of the American Red Cross's Bethesda Chapter. Tuckerman also chaired the Board of Trustees of the Social Services League's Bethesda Branch.

Walter Tuckerman married Edith Abercrombie-Miller Tuckerman at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, New Jersey on December 28, 1910. They had five children together: Laura, Edith II, Ruth, Alice, and Margaret. Edith Tuckerman I was a patron of the arts. She made donations to the Smithsonian Institution, including Genoese velvet and an embroidered waistcoat from King Louis XVI of France. The Archives of American Art at the Institute contains letters sent to her from artists Louise Kidder Sparrow, Elizabeth Paterson, and Harry Wells.

In 1929, Edith Tuckerman I co-founded the National Women's Country Club (now Bethesda Country Club) as a re-organization of Montgomery Country Club. The club included a nine-hole course designed by Scottish architect Fred Findlay. During Edith Tuckerman I's service as the club's president, it hosted First Lady Edith Wilson as the guest of honor at a luncheon. (Wilson was the wife of President Woodrow Wilson.)