imported>Jevansen: Moving from Category:Sportspeople from Brooklyn to Category:Fencers from Brooklyn using Cat-a-lot

2025-01-30T00:33:33Z

Moving from Category:Sportspeople from Brooklyn to Category:Fencers from Brooklyn using Cat-a-lot

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{{Short description|American fencer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| name = Harold Van Buskirk
| birth_name =
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1894|2|20}}
| birth_place = [[Brooklyn, New York]], United States
| death_date = {{death date and age|1980|10|25|1894|2|20}}
| death_place = [[Harris County, Texas]], United States
| height =
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| sport = [[Fencing]]
| event =
| collegeteam = [[Penn Quakers fencing|University of Pennsylvania Quakers]]
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| show-medals = yes
}}
'''Harold Van Buskirk''' (February 20, 1894 – October 25, 1980) was an American [[architect]] and [[fencing]] champion, and a three-time member of the US Olympic fencing team.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/23812 |title=Harold Van Buskirk |work=Olympedia |access-date=26 October 2021}}</ref> During World War I, he was the officer in charge of the [[US Navy]] Camouflage Section, which designed and tested [[camouflage]] for American ships, both military and civilian (Van Buskirk 1919).

==Early years==
Born in [[Brooklyn, New York]], his birth name was '''Charles Harold Van Buskirk'''. He attended college at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], where he earned a BS in architecture in 1915, and fenced for the [[Penn Quakers fencing|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]] (Skerrett 1919:101). The Camouflage Section had two subsections, the Design Subsection (located in [[Washington DC]]) and the Research Subsection (located at [[Eastman Kodak]] Laboratories in [[Rochester, New York]]). The former, which was largely made up of artists, was led by a painter named [[Everett L. Warner]], while the latter, whose members where mostly scientists, was under the direction of Eastman Kodak's head physicist, [[Loyd A. Jones]] (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]] (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 Summer Olympics|1924]], [[1928 Summer Olympics|1928]] and [[1932 Summer Olympics|1932]], competing with the sabre.<ref name="sports-reference">{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/va/harold-van-buskirk-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417230739/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/va/harold-van-buskirk-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-04-17 |title=Harold Van Buskirk Olympic Results |accessdate=2010-03-29 |work=sports-reference.com}}</ref> 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]] 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.

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[USFA Hall of Fame]]
* [[Dazzle camouflage]]
* [[Everett Warner]]
* [[Loyd A. Jones]]
* [[William Mackay (artist)|William Mackay]]
*[[List of USFA Division I National Champions]]

==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==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100303055428/http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Camoupedia/DazzleCamouflage.html WWI Ship Camouflage (includes Van Buskirk photographs)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090130132547/http://bobolinkbooks.com/Camoupedia/CamouflageArtists.html Contributors to Camouflage]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20200417230739/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/va/harold-van-buskirk-1.html Van Buskirk Olympic Sports biography]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080214112142/http://usfencinghalloffame.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=124&Itemid=52 US Fencing Hall of Fame biography]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Buskirk, Harold}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American architects]]
[[Category:American male épée fencers]]
[[Category:Olympic fencers for the United States]]
[[Category:Fencers at the 1924 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Fencers at the 1928 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Fencers at the 1932 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Fencers from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Camoufleurs]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:American male sabre fencers]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]

Harold Van Buskirk - Revision history

imported>Jevansen: Moving from Category:Sportspeople from Brooklyn to Category:Fencers from Brooklyn using Cat-a-lot