Joseph T. Rucker was, for the better part of his forty year career, a newsreel cameraman for Paramount News. He is remembered for filming the 1915 opening of the Panama Canal, the aftermath of the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, the 1927 civil war in China and Richard E. Byrd Jr.'s 1928 and 1930 expeditions to Antarctica. In the latter expedition, he and fellow cameraman, Willard Van der Veer brought back over 160,000 feet of raw footage. During the Second World War, Rucker covered the conflict in the Pacific aboard the American aircraft carrier Enterprise.Rucker was born on 1 January, 1887, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second son of George G. and Sarah Millikan Rucker. His father, who had for a number of years been a cotton broker in Virginia, died sometime before 1900.Rucker passed away in San Francisco on 21 October, 1957, two years after his retirement. He was survived by his wife of forty-two years, the former Cecile Kaufman (1893-1975), a daughter Frances Joy and son Joseph.
