Jack Culver, Youth Track Coach, Knew The Importance Of Family

Jack Culver had a choice to make a few years ago - be a manager at Service Paper in Tukwila, where he had worked since he was 23, or drive a truck for the company.

He weighed the options carefully. The managerial job would involve a lot of overtime, and chances were good it would cut into the time he spent with his wife, Gayle, and his two young sons.

His own father had died when he was just 7 years old, and Mr. Culver knew what it meant not to have a father around. He loved spending time with his boys, playing sports with them, fishing with them.

He chose the trucking job.

"He didn't want to climb the big ladder," said Gayle Culver. "That's the kind of man he was, he wanted to be with his family."

Mr. Culver died Monday from injuries sustained in a fall from a freeway overpass in Salem, Ore. He was 41.

Mr. Culver, who lived in Enumclaw, had gone to Salem for a regional track meet. He was the assistant coach for a group of young runners from Auburn and Enumclaw, the Green River Gliders. They were competing in a regional cross-country meet, hoping to qualify to compete nationally.

A few nights before his death, Mr. Culver had stayed up late to write a letter to Starbucks, asking the coffee company to help finance a trip to the Junior Olympics for some of his runners.

He'd been coaching the kids for the past two years, and he loved doing it.

"When he wasn't coaching he was reading books about coaching,"

said Gayle Culver.

At the time of his death, Mr. Culver was hurrying from the boys' event to the girls'. He apparently took a short cut and somehow slipped on the overpass.

Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Mr. Culver and his family moved to Seattle after the 1964 Alaska earthquake.

After graduation from Ballard High School, he joined the Air Force. He worked mostly in the British Isles and Bering Sea doing deep-sea and mountain rescues.

He later settled in Enumclaw.

A runner himself, he competed in the Emerald City Marathon a few years ago and finished in three hours and 38 minutes.

He was also an avid hiker and sportsman. He climbed Mount Rainier and reached the summit, and was rewarded with a clear, sunny day.

Survivors include his wife, Gayle; their sons, Chris and Tommy; his mother, Bea Culver of Seattle; three sisters, Libby Goehner of Steilacoom, Pierce County, and Sharry Mezich and Lynne Fulmer, both of Seattle; and two brothers, Corky Culver of Mercer Island and his twin, Gary Culver of New Hamlin, W.Va.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Wabash Presbyterian Church in Auburn.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Mr. Culver's name to the Green River Gliders.