Rudolph Sorm

Rudolph Sorm (1898 - 1948) Was an American entrepreneur and founder of Sorm's, an American based chain of gas stations, shower station houses, and truck stops that has been in operation since 1913 headquartered in Metter, Georgia.

Early Life

Anna and Karl Sorm, 1892

Rudolph Sorm was born to German immigrants Anna Spenglemaier Sorm and Karl Gustaf Sorm in Savannah, Georgia in 1898. Sorm's Father, Karl Sorm established a fishing bait and tackle shop on Wilmington Island, Ga in the 1870s, which was a largely uninhabited Island at the time.

The shop became a premier meeting place for Savannah businessmen and political figures by the 1890s before it was burned in 1907 by an angry mob. Earlier that year, Anna and Karl Sorm had made public their support and endorsement of mayoral candidate Heinrich "Spark" Spenglemaier, Anna's brother and a fellow german immigrant to Savannah. Spenglemaier was highly favored in the mayoral race of 1907 until it was discovered that he had been running illegal chicken and dog "swamp races" on the Ogeechee river.

Rudolph Sorm pictured in front of "The Borm Nest," the vacant lot in Metter, Ga which would later become the first Sorm's.

Rudolph worked in his fathers shop as a teenager and sold cricket soup to local swamp boys as a way to build capital allowing him to purchase a small plot of land in Metter, Ga in 1913, where he would establish the first Sorm's traveling gas shop. In the following decades, Rudolph established Sorm's, a chain of gas stations, shower station houses, and truck stops.

Personal Life

Rudolph Sorm died in 1948 from food poisoning

Sorm's Tomb in Metter, Ga. 1971