James Alphonsus Cullen

Interment

San Gabriel Mission Catholic Church Columbarium

A Gathering and lunch will be held at the Cullen Home

Following the Mass and Interment.

Address: 237 Pasqual Ln.

San Gabriel CA, 91775

RSVP here:

https://evite.me/Dp61Kp11DP

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Boy Scouts of America,

or better yet... take your kids/grandkids for a hike!

Eulogy for James Alphonsus Cullen -Delivered 18July2025

I’m Bob, Jim and Sally’s oldest son. On behalf of my brothers Mike, Tim and Ed, we thank you for coming to celebrate the impact my father had on all of us. He lived his 86 years amazingly well and it is ridiculous to think that that a few words here could capture the legacy of James Alphonsus Cullen. Moreover, I hope you will bear with me if I need to pause. As a certified control freak, it is difficult to accept that sometimes I am not even in charge of ME…but here we go…

Dad’s grandfather, John Cullen, one of thirteen siblings, left County Sligo Ireland in 1845 at the age of 4. He met & married MaryAnn Long in Missouri. Mary was born in Missouri but her parents were married in County Lowth Ireland. Jim’s Dad, Alphonsus James Cullen, was born in 1891. Alphonsus’ birth certificate shows that John was 50 and Mary was 41 when they had Alphonsus. Alphonsus married Miriam in 1929, they moved to California and Jim was born 10 years later. This means Alphonsus was 48 when Dad was born. It is a short trip back to the old country when dad’s side involves kids at 50-year intervals.

Alphonsus was a skilled carpenter and shipwright. He constructed the family home on Collis Avenue in Los Angeles. We know he worked at the Long Beach shipyard during World War 2. Unfortunately, Alphonsus died in 1950 when dad was only 11. My Dad was always planning the next thing, not looking back, so my brothers and I just don’t know that much about Alphonsus. Grandma Miriam never remarried and clearly did a pretty good job raising a teenager on her own.

Dad grew up in that one house on Collis Avenue, went to Catholic Grammar School at All Saints. He met my mom 200 yards from here at Misson High School. They were both in the class of 1957. Dad started his Land Surveying career and Mom went off to UC Santa Barbara. They married in 1961. I showed up 2 years later. At 24 years old, dad was only at half the established Cullen next-generation exchange age.

Just after marriage they purchased a house on Leslie Drive, a mile north of here. In 1971 when I was 8, we moved west, half a mile, to the amazing place my brothers and I still call home even though I’ve lived in my current house three times longer than I lived there.

Until 1978 my dad worked for the Los Angeles County Road Department as a land surveyor. I remember that he worked on the roads in the Santa Monica Mountains quite a bit. He would delight us (but not no much mom) by bringing us the rattle ends from the snakes he had to dispatch while scrambling around mountainsides. He was in the National Guard at this time and loved to tell stories about training exercises that involved driving across the desert laying communication wire. In 1965 he was deployed to a school gym in Watts, without ammunition. Strange echoes of now.

Our best early memories are camping trips. When my dad worked at the Road Department, he earned 4-weeks vacation per year and he would take his entire leave in one go. He and mom would pack us up for 1-month tent camping road trips. He reversed the bench seat on the 1967 dodge van and custom-built a plywood platform for the back. Gear went under the plywood, camping pads went on top and 4 boys rode completely unsecured atop a makeshift mattress just about flush with the window sills. In the late 60’s and early 70’s a family could just wing-it and head out with no campsite reservations most places. Mom and Dad would have a general destination like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone or …Canada but no schedule about how many stops or how long we would pause if some middle place turned out to be fun. We went to so many amazing places and we took it all completely for granted. I remember how frustrated he would get with us when we would have our heads down in our comic books and gripe about having to get out of the van to look at ANOTHER waterfall.

I started scouts in the mid-70’s. Very quickly, dad was a Webelos leader. In 1978 our little 1967 van was replaced by a 12 passenger monster version so that he could haul family and scouts on trips. It was very utilitarian but challenging during my DMV driving test. I don’t remember exactly when he became scoutmaster, but I do remember his ultimatum that I needed to get to First Class rank if I wanted to continue to do High Adventure trips. Mike and Tim ranked-up higher and Ed earned Eagle making dad and mom proud. Our high-adventure trips spanned from the cool High Sierra to hot summers canoeing down the lower Colorado River. Again, we took it all for granted, he made it fun. He kept the bummer logistics semi-invisible while we learned group and leadership skills like menu planning, cooking, how to deal with bad weather and the joy of bagging one more peak than we thought we could.

Dad did much more with scouting after I went off to be an adult on my own. I won’t even try to tell you about those times. I do hope some of you might share a story today about your own fun and near-death experiences.

Dad caught the skiing bug late. After retirement he got more into skiing than we boys ever did. When powder days occurred, he would call and attempt to talk me into ditching work mid-week. It is so weird when your dad turns into Jeff Spicoli. Nevertheless, ski trips to Mammoth became a wintertime family thing. We would have three generations on the slopes during the day and family meals at the condominium afterwards.

He and my mom took many epic trips after retirement including a river trip on the Danube just before my mom passed. He missed mom terribly and the only time I ever heard him talk about regrets was when he said that they had more trips planned and would have done even more travel if he had thought time was short.

In recent years, he treasured biking with the Amblers. I cannot tell you how much it meant to him that the Amblers continued to include him in their bike outings even when he could not actually ride with the group.

In closing, I want to share a thought that only fully occurred to me this week as my brothers and began sorting through 54 years of accumulated STUFF at the house.

I was outdoor chairman for Xander’s scout troop for just a few years. I gained a sense of how much paperwork is involved in boy scouting. Nevertheless, my dad’s horde of Boy Scout trip planning, permitting and record-keeping materials was mind boggling. There is so much behind the scenes work in scouting, but I never ever heard him complain about it. (My wife was not so lucky, I may have griped about “tour permits” once or twice). I do think many of you in the audience may have a better appreciation for my dad’s efforts than his own kids did. There are many plaques and certificates but those of you that spent time with him know that he always said he did the scout work because it was fun!

So here is the thought that occurred to me this week. Although like most everything else, he never talked about it, losing his dad at 11 years of age must have created a void. Then through scouting, he created and participated in amazing multi-year adventures for a bunch of boys ages 11-18. … andhe did this over and over again for decades.

It is important to remember that Scout leaders don’t sponsor a series of make-a-wish events, they help build and run a machine that, over a period of years, creates valuable citizens. He did not do this work by himself. You, his friends, were a huge part of the effort and the reason it was enjoyable for him.

I’m proud of my dad, he had a great run. I’m also proud to know the many people here that participated in Jim’s well-lived life. Thank you all for your part in building his reputation of service and fun. Later today, I hope you will join us in a toast celebrating that legacy.