Retirement and Legacy
Following his retirement from the Coast Guard in June 1919, Bertholf moved to New York City and became a vice president at the American Bureau of Shipping, becoming an influential figure at the institution. Since he had more leisure time after retirement, he developed an interest in genealogy and he and researched and compiled a family history. He died of a heart attack at his residence at the Bretton Hall Hotel in New York City on 11 November 1921 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
His contributions to the Coast Guard include preventing the dissolution of the service in 1911; his guidance in the merger of the USRCS and the USLSS into the U. S. Coast Guard in 1915; and in 1919, he was instrumental in successfully preventing a takeover by the U.S. Navy.
The Coast Guard has named the first cutter of the Legend-class maritime security cutters the USCGC Bertholf (WMSL-750) in honor of their former Commandant. The cutter is the first ship to be constructed as part of the Coast Guard's Deepwater program and was launched in 2006. The Bertholf was commissioned on Coast Guard Day, 4 August 2008, and is currently homeported in Alameda, California.
Read more about this topic: Ellsworth P. Bertholf
Famous quotes containing the words retirement and/or legacy:
“Convent. A place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)