Hallock Ward Culver of Westhampton Beach died on November 7. He was 93.
Mr. Culver was born on December 24, 1921, to Katharine Ward Hallock and Herbert Reeve Culver in the house on Baycrest Avenue, built by his parents, in the old Culvertown section of Westhampton. Mr. Hallock graduated from Westhampton Beach High School in 1939, and shortly after high school, he attended the Roosevelt Aviation School in Mineola. Then he joined American Airlines, just as the country entered the war.
Soon after Pearl Harbor, along with fellow crew members, he was assigned to the newly formed Air Transport Command (ATC). Now attached to the U.S. Army, he flew around the world delivering men and cargo to the war zones. His travels took him to South America, Africa and the Middle East. Many times he flew over the Himalayas from India to China to the famous Flying Tigers.
On the evening of February 4, 1943, after a mission looking for a missing B-17 bomber in Greenland, the Consolidated C-87 he was crew in began the flight back to Maine. An unexpected winter storm blew them deep into northern Canada. After 12 hours of flying, Flight Engineer Culver notified the captain that there was “one more hour of gasoline left.” As night became dawn the four-engine C-87 descended and landed on a frozen lake. Over the next month, their fellow aviators searched the frozen landscape of Quebec. The plane’s crew and passengers suffered from extreme cold and hunger. One very cold day, 21-year-old Mr. Culver saw a plane in the distant skies and shot a flare into the air. In a moment the plane turned, flying over them, flashing their landing lights in recognition and dropping supplies to the stranded aviators. Although they had been found, it would still be a few weeks before they would be rescued. On March 6, after a month and a day, they were removed from Canada for a badly needed week off before returning to the war effort.
Among the searchers was pilot and author, Ernest Gann, who wrote a novel about the ordeal called “Island in the Sky.” Besides being a bestseller, it became a movie starring John Wayne.
Mr. Culver married Vivian Akin from Lawton, Oklahoma, on Thanksgiving Day 1946, during his brief U.S. Army service. After the Army they began their life together in Westhampton. Mr. Culver took a job as a plumber working for his father, Herbert R. Culver, who had begun H.R. Culver Plumbing Company in 1910. The Southampton Press featured the company in its March 3, 2011, edition, “Culver Clan Celebrates Centennial.”
When his father died in 1951, Mr. Culver became the proprietor. His son Dean joined him full time in 1973. Mr. Culver was a fixture in the Westhampton community, and up until the time of his death, Mr. Culver remained active with the organization answering phones, dictating invoices, and performing other tasks in the office.
Mr. Culver was a lifelong member of the Westhampton United Methodist Church and served as the chairman of the Board of Trustees for more than 40 years. He was an award-winning amateur photographer. He was an avid gardener and loved spending time with his children and grandchildren.
Hallock Ward Culver was named after three family surnames. He descended from the earliest settlers of Puritan eastern Long Island, perhaps all having arrived during the 1600s. He was the 11th generation from Edward Colver (Culver) and Anne Ellis, who arrived by 1635 to Massachusetts. He was a direct descendant of Governor Robert Treat, the first colonial governor of Connecticut, Lion Gardiner, the first Englishman in New York, and Richard Woodhull, a founder of Brookhaven Town, and also of Richard (Bull) Smith, the founder of Smithtown, and Jonathan Raynor, who was the first European resident of Ketchaponak (Westhampton). In addition, there were the Rev. John Yong (Young) and Peter Hallock, founders of Southold. Other family names include: Baylis, Brewster, Budd, Chatfield, Conklin, Davidson, Dayton, Fordham, Foster, Gildersleeve, Hedges, Horton, Howell, Jessup, Ketcham, Meigs, Miller, Mulford, Pierson, Purdy, Reeve, Rogers, Ruland, Scudder, Stratton, Tapp, Tompkins, Topping, Tuthill, Tuttle, Wells and Young. Mr. Culver was directly descended from many who served as patriots in the American Revolution.
He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Vivian Akin Culver; four children, Daniel F. and wife Kathleen Davenport, Lauren G. and husband James A. Barlow, Dean H. and wife Regina Bonner, and Wayne T. and wife Jill Schneider. He is also survived by a sister, Marian Phillips of Westhampton, and a brother, Warren of Kansas. He was predeceased by his parents and by a sister, Amy S. Terry, and two brothers, Arthur J., and Herbert R. Jr.
He is also survived by 13 grandchildren, Steven and wife Marissa, Kerin and husband Brian Beedenbender, Sean and wife Brittany, James Barlow and wife Lisa, Sarah and husband Derik Sinclair, and Julia Barlow, as well as Emily and husband William Dawson, Lesley and husband Joel Anthony, Abby and husband Chad Lynch, and Matthew, Robert, Jeffrey and Eric. He is also survived by 10 great-grandchildren, Liliana and Chase, Drew and Ava, and Cole, Jude, Gabe, Liam, Ella and Shelby.
A funeral service was held November 11 at the Westhampton United Methodist Church, followed by burial in the family plot at the Westhampton Cemetery, accompanied by a military tribute.
on Nov 16, 2015