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Albert, (Bert), Henry Reiners was born on February 12, 1889 in New Jersey. He went to school in Union City
(then called Union Hill), working as a messenger and "gofer" for his father and others when he became old enough, and graduated from
Union Hill High School in 1907. He attended Cooper Union in New York City, and became a chemist. He married in 1916, and he and
his wife, Ada, had four children, who they raised in Cranford, New Jersey. Bert passed away in his sleep at home on February 24,
1974.
Bert was always interested in anything and everything scientific, and took up photography as a
teenager, always developing his own photos. In August, 1910, at the age of 21, he had a unique opportunity to witness the Curtiss
Exhibition Team in flight at Sheepshead Bay, and took his camera with him. The result was 27 photos of a "window in time". Although
Bert spoke enthusiastically to his nephew in after years about this wonderful experience, the photos were never known to exist until after
his widow passed away in 1983 and all Bert's old photographs were found in boxes in the attic. Bert's granddaughter, Mary Alice
Wittnebert Borer, mounted the photos in albums for preservation's sake, but no one recognized the majority of the subjects, least of all
the photos from the air show. It was not until she showed them to Bert's nephew, Bill Reuter, in October, 2003, that Bill instantly
identified them as photos of the great occasion that "Uncle Bert" had told him about. |
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