An Eagle Scout whom a younger Boy Scout looked up to and wished to emulate before he was tragically killed last year in an accident has been named the first recipient of the Boy Scout Troop 400 Bryan Culberson Memorial Scholarship.
Durham School of the Arts graduating senior Jacob J. Szuch will be receiving a $1,000 scholarship at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Aldersgate Methodist Church. He will use the money in his pursuit of a degree in Commercial Art at East Carolina University. The memorial scholarship program honors Bryan Culberson who died last year after a tunnel he dug in a mound of dirt for his toy soldiers collapsed on him. His family fulfilled the 12-year-old’s wish and donated his organs to several other children.
After Bryan’s death, an outpouring of generous memorials from the community and matching gifts from GlaxoSmithKline provided the initial funding for the endowment. Culberson was the patrol leader of the Fire Snakes Patrol of Boy Scout Troop 400. He had earned the rank of Tenderfoot and was posthumously presented with the Spirit of the Eagle Award by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
The son of John and Cindy Szuch of Durham, this year’s Bryan Culberson Memorial Scholarship recipient has been a member of Boy Scout Troop 400 for nine years. Jacob Szuch was awarded the rank of Eagle in April 2002 in a ceremony that also honored Michael Sieber, another Troop 400 Eagle Scout. Sieber will also be honored Tuesday night as the first runner-up of the Bryan Culberson Memorial Scholarship.
Bryan’s mother, Nancy Culberson, and aunt, Kathy Wisniewski, have set up a web site about Bryan’s life at www.bryanculberson.org. Information about the scholarship is also posted at the site.
