William Rodgers Caltrider, Jr., July 15, 2023

Founder of Center for Alcohol and Drug Research Education had a ‘true passion’ for helping alleviate others’ pain

William R. “Bill” Caltrider Jr., the founder and president of the Center for Alcohol and
Drug Research Education, who also played a major role in the rehabilitation facility Tuerk House, died of heart failure July 15 at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital. The Ednor Gardens resident was 75.

“Bill saved Tuerk House,” said Dr. Michael Hayes, who specializes in internal and addiction medicine and is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “He was a great guy and a very bright man, and I don’t think the people at Tuerk House today understand the role he played. I think he’s hugely underappreciated.”

Lucy L. Howard, who served on Tuerk House’s board for 20 years, said: “There would be no Tuerk House without Bill. He was very involved in commercial real estate and played a huge role in getting Tuerk House a permanent home.”
Dennis E. Nitka was a Loyola University Maryland student in the 1990s when he and several college friends began attending a weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting Mr. Caltrider) and a group of older men were trying to help us get our lives together,” said Mr. Nitka, who has 32 years of sobriety. “Bill never asked for anything, but he always showed up. He changed my life.”

Larry Sullivan, who has been in recovery for 34 years, said: “If I had to describe Bill Caltrider’s life in one word it would be ‘service. That’s the value he instilled in every one of us.”

William Roger Caltrider Jr., son of William R. Caltrider Sr., a carpenter, and Myrtle Caltrider, a registered nurse, was born in Baltimore and raised in Parkville. After graduating from Parkville High School, the younger Mr. Caltrider received a full scholarship to Yale University and earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies in 1969.

He obtained a master’s degree in history from the Johns Hopkins University in 1975 and had completed the coursework at Homewood for his Ph.D.
Mr. Caltrider was on the faculty of Hopkins as a graduate assistant from 1969 to 1975 and taught history at Morgan State University from 1970 to 1971.

After leaving academia, Mr. Caltrider earned his real estate license and established and served as president of Federal Realty. In addition, he had been president of Argent Realty, the Northeast Real Estate Conservation Project, the Greater Northwood Community Council and Applied Technology Partners.

But his struggle with alcoholism came to define his life. At his death, he had celebrated nearly 39 years of sobriety and was “credited with helping countless people who suffered from addiction,” according to a family biographical profile.
In 1970, Tuerk House was established by Dr. Isadore Tuerk, who had been Maryland’s mental health commissioner from 1960 to 1968.

Tuerk House was initially operated at 10 N. Green St. under the auspices of the University of Maryland Medical Center until the two parted ways.

“It then wandered around to St. Joseph Monastery and to a motel on Loch Raven Boulevard, and it was Bill’s work that finally gave it a stable home,” said Dr. Hayes, a former medical director at Tuerk House. Mr. Caltrider, who had been treasurer of Quarter Way Houses, put together the deal that enabled the recovery center to acquire the old Lutheran Hospital on North Ashburton Street for a dollar, where it has remained ever since.

“That deal solidified and stabilized Tuerk House. Otherwise, I don’t think it would have survived,” Dr. Hayes said.