Olin Stansell Culbert (1933-1998) - Part 1

Olin Stansell Culbert (1933-1998) of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada was the great-great-grandson of John Culbert and Mary Ward.

Olin Stansell Culbert (1933-1998)

In the following post, Jason Poole writes his memories of his grandfather, Olin Culbert. (More about Jason at the end of this post.) This is the first installment of Jason's story about Olin. More will follow at a later date.

Jason Poole with his grandfather, Olin Culbert

It is 7 o’clock in the morning, on a Tuesday, and in little over an hour the school bell will ring to start the day. I am nestled up in bed, thinking nothing of my family’s daily routine as I get in the last few moments of rest while the sun slowly starts to enter through the blinds of my bedroom window. There are small stirrings in my sisters’ room, and I can hear my mother and father start their day. The coffee maker lets off the last exhale of steam as the last few drops enter the filling pot and yet, I remain in a clouded space between sleep and alertness. There is absolutely nothing special about this day and yet I am completely ignorant of the pure, calming joy that normalcy can bring at such a young age.

My parents sit quietly, sipping on their coffee, enjoying a moment of well deserved relieve before the house erupts with the sound of three children, under the age of 9 – the energetic brood of Sharron Anne Culbert and Peter William Poole.

There is still time before we will be aroused from bed. Before my sisters and I head to school for the day. Before a sharpened level of chaos fills out modest suburban home and yet before all of this, the echoing ring of the telephone fills the kitchen.  One ring, from what seems like a relic of days gone past – the home phone, mounted unsteadily on our wall. A hushed and murmured conversation ensues and yet, I sleep quietly in my tiny single bed in my Maple Leaf pajamas. The phone is hung up and I am awoken by the tranquil voice of my mom telling me that Grandpa Culbert wants to show me something before he takes you to school. By no means was he a constant chauffeur but I knew what this meant. It is in this rare moment of lucidity, my body perks up, my eyes quickly widen from their slumber and I realize exactly where he and I are heading.

A dark, greyish-blue, two-door Plymouth rolls into the drive as I hold my backpack tight and slide my ball cap on. My LA GEAR, light-up sneakers dredge my path through the morning dew as I rush outside and hop excitedly into the car. And there he is, glasses bridged upon his nose, dressed in flannel plaid, blue jeans and a wind-breaker coat. Olin Culbert – Grandpa.  Most days as a young boy I would tell my mom I was going to walk down the street to Grandpa Culbert’s house to hang-out. She would call ahead, and I would arrive at his front door a few minutes later. He would always be tinkering with something; with his tools or checking in on a new tree or bush he had recently planted. But when Grandpa came to pick me up in the Plymouth, I knew where we were heading.

We drive quietly out of town, along Sweaburg Road towards the hamlet of that same name which lay on the outskirts of my hometown of Woodstock. As the road veers slightly to the right, towards towering rows of pine trees planted decades prior, we take a sharp left onto a dirt road leading into what is locally known as Sweaburg Swamp or Hodge’s Pond We have been here countless times before, scouting out the footprints of rabbit, dear, and fox. Grandpa had an amateur’s respect for nature in our area (flora and fauna) and now that I think back, I have realized he wanted to impart this wisdom and experience onto me.

A few weeks prior, on Old Stage Road near Oxford Centre, he showed me how to spot a racoon’s nest amongst one of the giant maples that edged the winding road. From the glove compartment he pulled out a can of tuna and with one quick movement of his Swiss Army knife, cracked it opened. We left that can below one of the trees as he pointed out a tiny, dark irregularity in the upper part of one of the larger boughs. It was as if he could see a set of eyes peering down on us from, burrowed from up on high. I stood by him, waist height, seeing nothing. The next morning, we left earlier than normal, just as the sun was rising but dark enough that headlights were needed. To my surprise (and not his) the can was gone and almost on cue, I remember catching a black, ringed tale scurry back into the nest, along the same branch as was pointed out the previous morning.

But today was different and seemed more exciting as I began to make out a faint pile of fur off in the distance. With the car parked, and the gentle hum of the 401 way off in the distance, there he was – laying motionless along the side of the gravel road. A barrage of colour scattered along his long lean body; grey, white, black, faint browns and yellows. He had the most pointed snout and held a sombre look upon his face with eyes closed and ears shooting out in perfect symmetry. It was a young, male coyote not yet 2 years old.

We stared at him for a little while as the clouds of hot air from our mouths slowly became less frequent with the rising sun and warmth of the day. He laid there, almost at peace, stoic and untouched. I helped my grandfather measure his length from his nose to the end of his tale to determine the creature’s age. His baseline knowledge or nature always astounded me. I remember him saying something about its size in relation to its presumed health, how well it was eating, how long it may have been here on the side of the road. He would venture a guess as to how large the coyote’s territory could have been in relation to where we were. Even now, my parents can still hear the yipping calls of coyotes from there back deck as their house stands close to the edge of town near a farmer’s field.

Although he had already been out hours before to see the coyote, he took notes and photographs of the young creature as he had done with other live animals in the area. It was his way of doing his homework whenever he planned on showing me something in the area. As for the coyotes, there was no blood, no sharp marks of trauma. Just four large paws, a thinning torso, and the single canine fang we could see as his head lay off to the side. We never knew how he met its fate. Maybe it was struck by a car or maybe it was malnourished – Grandparent’s rule was to never touch a deceased or live animal even if you just wanted to know more. You could do just the same through observation. The rest of the morning was a blur as I was dropped off as the first bell of the day rang out at school. The photos of this coyote still exist somewhere in my family’s basement.

I run and bike along these roads now, thinking of the mornings he and I spent together surveying our natural surroundings. Through all of this, one thing remains certain. You never truly know you are learning something through experience until after it has already happened. He taught me how to identify track marks of the animals in that area not for hunting purposes but for understanding, knowledge and maybe preservation. I could not begin to know exactly why we went on these adventures. Maybe Grandpa Culbert wanted to instill that same respect for how we could treat nature and the environment from a distance onto me. Maybe, later in life with a growing number of grandchildren, he wanted to reinvest time in his family. Maybe it was just as it was, grandson and grandfather.

This is one of the earliest memories I have as a child. I was around 9 years old; the eldest grandson of Olin Culbert and the 4xgreat-grandson of John Culbert and Mary Ward.

 - to be continued -

OLIN STANSELL CULBERT'S FAMILY TREE:

Ancestors:

John Culbert & Mary Ward (2xgreat-grandparents)

Henry Culbert & Margaret Wall (great-grandparents)

Joseph Henry Culbert & Edith Sophia Swalwell (grandparents)

Henry Joseph Culbert & Willena Josephine Stansell (parents)

Descendants (Children):

Thomas Henry Culbert

Charles Richard "Rick" Culbert

Sharron Ann (Culbert) Poole

Mark Stansell Culbert (1962-1996)

Note: The author of this blog post, Jason William Joseph Poole was born 23 June 1988 in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada where he lives today. Jason is currently employed full-time as a teacher at Woodstock Collegiate Institute in Woodstock. Jason received BA Honours at Brock University, B.Ed. at University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and MEd at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. 

Jason Poole, the grandson of Olin Culbert and 4xgreat-grandson of John Culbert and Mary Ward.

NOTE: You can read Part 2 of Jason's story about Olin Stansell Culbert by clicking here.

Helen Carscallen (1916-2003): Social worker, Professor, Broadcaster, Actress

 The following piece about Jane Helen Carscallen was written for the Culbert Family History blog by Helen's niece, Elizabeth "Betty" (Carscallen) Marmura. Helen Carscallen was the great-grandaughter of John Culbert and Mary Ward.

Helen Carscallen was a remarkable woman, and a very cool aunt. Time spent with Helen, and often her equally cheerful lifelong partner Ricky, (and their cats), was for her young nieces and nephews a much anticipated and happy occasion.  Helen seemed genuinely to enjoy us, and to actually be interested in what we thought!  We were made to feel somehow in league with this very interesting adult who had such a keen sense of adventure. My first cousins Steven and Richard remember particularly the great car rides in Helen’s convertible, and Pat and Wendy remind me of the thoughtful Christmas gifts that came our way: board games and card games that are still being handed down in the family. Helen was a fun person who welcomed change, as her many careers attest, and she had an ability to see new connections and relationships between phenomena - ideas, events, data - that was very stimulating and challenging.

"A remarkable woman, and a very cool aunt."

Helen Carscallen was born 12 January 1916 in West China, where her parents, Charles Rupert Carscallen and Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen were serving as educational missionaries. The youngest of four – three of whom were born in China, and one on furlough in Canada – Helen remained with her parents in Chengtu until she was ten, when the family returned to Canada.

The Carscallen Family in China. Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen (seated at left). Back row, left to right: Helen's siblings, Kay and Charlie. Front row, left to right: Helen, Helen's sister, Alice, and Helen's mother, Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen.

 

In 1938, Helen graduated from Victoria College, University of Toronto, with a B.A. in Sociology. 

During the War, Helen was a social worker with Big Sister Association and in 1942 she became director of recreation in a munitions factory employing 5,000 people, mainly women. There she met her partner Ricky, who was overseeing the physical training program.  When the war ended Helen became a caseworker with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, and Supervisor of Research and Public Relations for the CAS. It was about this time, when Helen was thirty, that she decided she would change careers roughly every ten years!

In 1956 she joined the Public Affairs Department of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and was soon executive producer for a one-hour daily radio show, Trans-Canada Matinee. When television came into its own, she organized a TV series on social issues, Under One Roof, and then became senior producer for TakeThirty, a daily TV program designed for women whose interests went beyond cooking and fashion.

 

Take 30's co-host, Paul Soles credits Helen Carscallen with the success of the show.

In 1962, Helen organized a CBC national conference, The Real World of Women, which was held at the University of Toronto. It was the first of its kind in Canada, and was a productive and well attended gathering. In 1964 Helen spent six weeks in Japan, filming – mainly in Tokyo and Kyoto – for Take Thirty. This was to give viewers a deeper knowledge and appreciation of a culture then largely unfamiliar in Canada.

Helen Carscallen (left) organized the CBC conference, The Real World of Women held in Toronto from September 6-9, 1962.

About this time Helen was instrumental in Adrienne Clarkson’s debut as host of Take Thirty. Years later, when Clarkson was Governor General of Canada, she wrote expressing her gratitude to Helen for having faith in her abilities. “Helen, you played such a large part in giving me my start in television. Bless you.”

It would be difficult to number the people whom Helen encouraged and supported to discover and make use of their talents.

 It was during these years that Helen met Marshall McLuhan, who was a guest on Take Thirty. She became very interested in his ideas in communications theory. This led to her third career. In 1965 she left the CBC and enrolled for an M.A. in Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her thesis, “Control in Canadian Broadcasting”, was a study of the power struggle between CBC management and its producers over a TV public affairs program called This Hour Has Seven Days, which aired in prime-time Sunday nights. The program was controversial, immensely popular, and led to frantic efforts on the part of management to control the issues discussed. Helen got us thinking about regulation in public broadcasting and whether it was designed to protect Canadian culture or to protect one set of Canadian ideas! The show was closed down before the end of its second year in 1966. In that year Helen obtained her M.A. and soon was well into work on a PhD when her financial resources ran out. She then abandoned the life of a student and began a teaching career, for a short time at York University and then at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, (now Ryerson University), to teach courses in communication.

Source: Exeter Times-Advocate,18 March 1965, page 13. Helen's mother was the former Hulda Culbert, not Hilda.

 

After she left CBC's Take 30, Helen Carscallen was interviewed on the show by Adrienne Clarkson. Source: Ottawa Citizen, 7 December 1968.

After ten years at Ryerson, though she was by then a tenured professor, Helen left the world of academia and at the age of sixty-two focused totally on a career in professional acting. She had always had a passionate interest in the theatre. She confessed that drama had been the dominant interest in her life since she was eight. Through the years and the careers as social worker, broadcaster and professor, Helen had acted in many amateur and semi-professional groups. In 1978 she auditioned and landed a job with the Stratford Shakespearean Theatre as the nurse in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. 

 

Helen Carscallen in Uncle Vanya at the Stratford Theatre, 1978.

Helen soon had parts in other plays: The Winters Tale and As You Like It. She said she learned more there in six months than she had learned anywhere else in that many years. She enjoyed acting immensely. From Stratford she went to TV and film, playing many roles.  One of her most memorable was in a 1986 CBC-TV two-part drama, The Other Kingdom. She received an award for Best Acting Performance in a Supporting Role for this work. In 1993, when Helen was seventy-seven, she was honoured with a life membership in ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists Performers Guild.

Helen always got excellent reviews. In 1974 the Toronto Star theatre critic describes some of Helen’s work in a hit at the Firehall Theatre called Shelter – a truly Canadian play! A Liberal MP from South Saskatchewan has driven his car into a river and drowned. His widow, who spends the first act under a blanket, is encouraged by four female friends to run for his seat in a by-election.  Helen plays Aunt Luel, a ‘right-wing’ mystic who runs everybody’s lives. “Miss Carscallen is a cheery blockbuster in bright colours and a white wig, whether singing camp songs” (Aunt Helen really knew her camp songs), "driving her daughter to attempt suicide in the wedding dress she has forced on her, or conducting a séance to while away the time on election night.”

Perhaps one of her more startling TV roles was in War of the Worlds. As I was preparing supper one night my kids suddenly shouted, with much laughter,” Hey Mom -it’s Aunt Helen!!” I came into the living room to find Aunt Helen emerging from a swamp as an alien creature from another planet.

At eighty-one she wrote: “While I am semi-blind my ambition now is to teach a series of seminars on multiple careers – advantages and disadvantages. It seems to me an appropriate career plan for women.”  Illness prevented Helen from carrying this out, but one wonders how many women would have the kind of courage, freedom, and adventurous spirit that would tempt them to walk away from an interesting career every ten years to begin anew, particularly in their sixties. I think there are not many Aunt Helens out there. Those of us who knew her for much of our lives – her nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews - feel very privileged. She was an amazing woman, and a dependable, stimulating and affectionate friend to us and to many others, always interested and always up for anything. 

Jane Helen Carscallen's Family Tree:

Ancestors:

John Culbert & Mary Ward (great-grandparents)

Richard Culbert & Jane Eleanor Fairhall (grandparents)

Hulda May Culbert & Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen (parents) 

Note from the Culbert Family History blog creator, Mary Jane Culbert: Thank you, Betty (Carscallen) Marmura for composing this blog post about your remarkable aunt, Helen Carscallen, and for contributing photographs. Thanks also to other members of the Carscallen family who contributed photos, especially Helen's other nieces, Wendy (Gowland) Boole and Patricia (Gowland) Rowell. 

The following are some extra details and photos of Helen Carscallen:

Helen Carscallen (little girl with her head down) with her sisters, Alice (left) and Kay (right) with their grandparents, Richard Culbert and Jane (Fairhall) Culbert in Lucan, Ontario around 1920. The Carscallen family was on furlough at this time from their missionary work in China.

June 1944 at the Ontario Ladies College in Whitby, Ontario. Adults left to right are: Helen's sister Alice; Helen Carscallen; Helen's mother Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen; Helen's sister, Kay; and Helen's father, Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen. The little girl is Kay's daughter, Patricia Gowland. Helen's father Charles Carscallen was the president of the Ontario Ladies College while Helen's mother Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen taught classes in Religious Knowledge and Modern History and worked to improve the college library.

1960s. Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen and Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen with their four children.

Left to right: Helen Carscallen, Alice (Carscallen) Griffiths, Charles Newton Carscallen, Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen, Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen, and Kathleen "Kay" (Carscallen) Gowland.

1960s. Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen and his wife, Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen with their children and grandchildren. Their daughter, Helen Carscallen is seated on the ground.

The following are passages from Helen Carscallen's obituary, written by her friend, Margaret Norquay:

​Social worker, professor, broadcaster, actress. Born January 12, 1916, in Chengtu, China. Died May 28, 2003 in Toronto, of natural causes, aged 87.

Helen had a great capacity for Friendship. At a recent celebration of her life, colleagues, Friends and family spoke of the debt they owed her for the vision she gave them of their own unique abilities. Nieces, nephews and some grand-nieces spoke movingly about what a wonderful aunt she was -- how she never talked down, always treated them as adults, wanting to know what they were up to. Former colleagues talked about how Helen launched them in their careers, persuading them to believe in themselves and providing ongoing support. Helen gave something of herself to each of us and we were all enriched. 

Note: For a detailed 7-part biography about Helen Carscallen's mother, Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen, click here. For a biography about Helen's brother, Charles Newton Carscallen, click here. For a biography about Helen's sister, Kathleen (Carsallen) Gowland, click here.