IN MEMORIAM: Philip Culbertson ’70
The Rev. Dr. Philip LeRoy Culbertson of Seattle, Washington died on February 4, 2022 at the age of 77. He was born on October 10, 1944, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
He is preceded in death by his parents, W. LeRoy Culbertson and Wanda M. (Atkins) Culbertson, and he is survived by his children, daughter Katie Schmidt (Jim) of Seattle and son Jacob Culbertson of San Jose, California. He is also survived by his four loving grandchildren, Harry, Gwenny, Miqel, and Teo, and by his brother Robert Culbertson and sister-in-law Carol Culbertson of Centennial, Colorado.
Culbertson graduated from Bartlesville's College High School in 1962. During high school, he worked as a teaching assistant at the local dance studio and played piano in a local rock band. After high school, Culbertson attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in organ and piano composition. He then moved to New York City, where he received his M.Div. from General and went on to get his Ph.D. in religious education and Jewish studies from New York University.
He worked as an Episcopal minister, author, professor, and psychotherapist both in the United States and abroad, particularly in New York City, where he was an assistant pastor at Trinity Church Wall Street; in Oberlin, Ohio, where he pastored Christ Episcopal Church; in Israel, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Hebrew University and summer-time resident in Jerusalem for many years; in Tennessee, where he was a professor at University of the South in Sewanee; and in New Zealand, where he was a professor at St. John's Theological College in Auckland for 15 years. After retirement to Palm Springs, California and then to Seattle, he converted to Judaism, where his heart truly resided. His eternal kindness, intellect, love of life, and curiosity will be carried by those who knew and loved him (and that's a lot of people!).
In Philip's own words: "It was a good run and now the curtain has fallen. I have slid down the Pohutukawa root."
Family and friends are invited to attend a memorial at Temple Beth Am in Seattle on Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 2:00 PM. Please see health/COVID guidelines at Beth Am Covid Safety Protocols - Temple Beth Am
Posted online on February 20, 2022
Published in Examiner-Enterprise