61
1954
Samuel Salmond Sylvester III
a generous friend
and devoted hus-
band and father,
whose wit and
enthusiasm for
life will be greatly
missed, died
peacefully on
August 9, 2015,
at the age of 79.
Born on June 13, 1936, Mr. Sylvester was
the eldest son of Samuel S. Sylvester II of
the Form of 1926 and Constance O’Brien
Sylvester. He grew up in Hanover, Mass.
At St. Paul’s, Mr. Sylvester competed in
football, hockey, and baseball with Delphian
and was a member of the SPS hockey and
baseball teams. He sang in the Glee Club
and was a member of the Debate Team
and the Missionary Society. His teachers
described him as a “loyal, conscientious
boy, with many friends” whose lively spirit
kept his fellow classmates entertained
Mr. Sylvester studied at Middlebury
College, earning his B.A. with the Class
of 1958. After college, he joined Weyer-
hauser as an insurance agent and, after
a brief stint on the West Coast, moved to
Pittsburgh, Pa., and then to Rhode Island.
He continued to work as an insurance
agent and financial advisor, eventually
founding Sylvester Associates, Inc. with
his sons in 1994. His son, Peter, continues
to run the family business, which provides
comprehensive insurance planning and
financial services to individual clients.
It was in Pennsylvania that Mr. Sylvester
met and married Patricia “Trish” Louise
Tetzlaff in April of 1962. Together the
couple raised four sons Samuel IV (1963),
Derek (1964), Peter (1967), and Stephen
(1969). Mr. Sylvester enjoyed coaching
his sons in hockey and soccer, finding a
happy balance between competition and
the joy of the game.
Driven by an adventurous spirit, Mr.
Sylvester drove a motorcycle across the
country after college and later rode his
bicycle from Seattle to Atlantic City to
benefit the American Lung Association.
From his parents, he inherited a love of
the water and traveling. He took pleasure
in sailing and racing along the East Coast
and as far away as Bermuda, Portugal,
and the Caribbean. He was also an avid
skier for much of his life.
Mr. Sylvester is survived by his wife of
53 years, Trish; his four sons, Samuel IV,
Derek, Peter, and Stephen, and their
spouses; nine grandchildren; his brothers,
James Sylvester and John Sylvester ’62;
and many close relatives and friends. In
addition to his father and brother, other
SPS relations include cousins Edmund Q.
Sylvester ’57 and Michael S. Sylvester ’59
as well as uncles Joseph Smith Sylvester
and Edmund Quincy Sylvester, both of
the Form of 1888.
1955
Peter William Culman
a pillar of the Balti-
more theater scene
for more than
three decades, died
on August 18, 2015,
in Jackson, Wyo.
He was 77 and
had battled Alz-
heimer’s disease
and a broken hip.
Mr. Culman’s career in the theater was
foreshadowed when he was a boy, but
seemed to pause during his tenure at
St. Paul’s School. Nevertheless, it was a
connection made through the School that
set him on his remarkable career, running
Center Stage in Baltimore for 33 years.
At the age of 10, according to his obit-
uary in the
Baltimore Sun
, Mr. Culman
stopped a Broadway show. Attending a
performance of
Where’s Charley?
with
his grandmother in 1948, he joined star
Ray Bolger – best known as the scare-
crow in the Wizard of Oz – in singing
“Once In Love With Amy.”
Once at SPS, however, Mr. Culman
focused on math and science. A school
profile from the time reports that “his
chief intellectual interests are scientific,
and he hopes to become an engineer.”
Mr. Culman attended Williams College.
He planned to spend two years at Williams,
then head to the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology to earn a master’s in
chemistry. After flunking a chemistry
midterm, he was asked what else he might
want to study.
“I’ve always wanted to put on musicals,”
he said, according to the
Sun
. Mr. Culman’s
son, Sean, told the newspaper, “It’s amaz-
ing how a bad grade changed my father’s
life.”
St. Paul’s would come back to play a
major part in Mr. Culman’s life after he
graduated from Williams with a degree in
English. In 1960, he was connected through
the School with legendary producer T.
Edward Hambleton ’30, who helped found
the off-Broadway movement.
Mr. Hambleton became Mr. Culman’s
mentor and ultimately recommended him
for the job at Center Stage in Baltimore.
He began there in 1966 after stints in the
Army and at a Virginia-based theater.
In 1974, the theater burned down. It
reopened the following year and publicity
from the blaze ironically helped attract
notice for the once-struggling company.
“In a funny way, the fire made us,” Mr.
Culman was quoted as saying.
Over his decades as managing director
at Center Stage, Mr. Culman was renowned
for his diligent fundraising and for the
stability he brought the theater, not to
mention sustaining high artistic stand-
ards. When he announced plans to retire
in 1999, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke
called him “a national treasure.”
Mr. Culman is survived by his wife of
50 years, Anne Salisbury “Sita” LaFarge;
his sons, John and Peter “Liam” William;
his sister, Kathleen Culman Kidder; and a
granddaughter.
1957
John Duncan Evans III
a generous,
thoughtful, and
welcoming man,
who offered his
life to others and
to his faith, died
on June 29, 2015,
at the age of 76.
Reverend Evans
was most recently
a resident of Charleston, S.C.
Born July 22, 1938, in Pittsburgh, Pa.,
to Ida Virginia Evans and John Duncan
Evans Jr., Reverend Evans was one of
three children, including brother David ’63
and sister Margaret. He attended Shady
