Page 28 - Port of Baltimore - Issue 1 - 2023

ANNIVERSARY
More Than A
CLUB
AS THE WOMEN’S TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION CLUB TURNS 90, MEMBERS REFLECT ON ITS RICH LEGACY
BY TINA IRGANG LEADERMAN
The Women’s Traffic & Transportation Club of Baltimore (WTTC) has a proud history. Founded in 1933, the club came into existence at a time when the transportation industry was heavily male-dominated and transportation clubs tended to invite women only as the guests of male members.
Three Baltimore women — Mathilda Brundick, Edith Bell and Nellie Cathcart — founded the WTTC to establish a place for women in the transportation industry to receive education and build relationships. Their legacy was sufficiently powerful to live on to this day, even as other women’s transportation clubs have faded out of existence.
In fact, this year marks the WTTC’s 90th anniversary. (For more on the club’s anniversary gala, see the opposite page.) “For me, that’s phenomenal,” said Mary Jane Norris, a member of the club since 1990. “For this club to still be standing.”
That longevity, said current WTTC President Karen Bush, is due to “the dedication of generation after generation of strong women who passed that legacy down to us. When one of us can’t do something, there’s always someone else who steps up. There’s such dedication and loyalty. People need this club.”
[26] The Port of Baltimore ■ ISSUE 1 / 2023