Walter Maurice ‘Dick’ Culbert was born August 26, 1922, in Camden, Camden County, New Jersey, U.S.A., the second son and fourth child of William Eves Culbert, Sr. and Irene Dorothea (nee Gilbert) Culbert. He was named for his paternal uncle, Walter Van Horn Culbert, who died in infancy, and for his maternal grandfather, Maurice Daniel Gilbert.
Early Life
Dick grew up in Collingswood, Camden County, New Jersey. From 1932-1936 he attended St. Peter’s Choir School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where, with the obvious encouragement of his musical parents, he received the musical education that formed an important part of his life. Dick graduated from Collingswood High School in 1940, then began an engineering degree program at the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia. For the summer of 1941, Dick worked as a shipfitter, 3rd class for the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, in Camden, New Jersey. Then, following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941, the United States entered World War II. The main focus of this narrative about Dick focuses on his military service.
Dick’s Military Service, 1942-1953
Later Life
When Dick returned from Europe in June, 1945, he was placed on inactive military service for a time. He married Mary Lois Keiser in September, 1947, in Collingswood. He also chose to use the G.I. Bill to study dentistry at Temple University in Philadelphia, graduating in 1947.
He then returned to active duty, serving as an Air Force dentist at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas, until June 1953.
After leaving active duty military service, the family moved back to New Jersey. Dick began setting up a private practice of family dentistry in Gibbstown, New Jersey, where he served until his retirement. He offered dental appointments to the public, and also provided examinations to many of the public school children that attended elementary schools in East Greenwich Township, Gloucester County.
In 1956, he and Mary bought bought a colonial era farmhouse, known historically as the Reeves Mansion, on three quarters of an acre of land, that was being surrounded by the suburban development of Greenfield’s Village, on the former farmlands. This village was located on the outskirts of Woodbury, New Jersey.
In his free time, Dick became an accomplished carpenter, restoring antique furniture and building furniture reproductions. He also loved canoeing, and spent many weekends traveling to the New Jersey Pine Barrens to paddle its rivers. He also developed his love of gardening, and planted impressive vegetable gardens and also nurtured bumper crops of fruit every year. The family homestead was extensively planted with fruit trees and many ornamentals, some of which came from collections made during family trips to Vermont and New York.
After Dick retired in 1987, he and Mary moved to a smaller home a short distance away in Wenonah. There he spent about five additional years continuing to pursue his interests of playing the piano, landscaping, going to auctions, and woodworking. Among his many projects was building a cedar strip canoe. In late 1992, Dick was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. While undergoing treatment in the hospital he suffered a stroke, which paralyzed his left side. In late January 1993, he was exposed to pneumonia, and in his vulnerable state he could not resist this further complication, dying on February 9, 1993.
Dick never spoke about his World War II experiences. It was only after his death that the journal of his prisoner of war experiences was found. In fact, he was also reticent in life, for even Ed Hennigan, with whom he had bunked for more than seven months in that POW camp, never knew that Dick kept a journal of that time.
