Remembering Sam


Aloha, my name is David McCullough. It was a death that took me from Hawai'i fourteen years ago and today a celebration of life well lived that returns me home, once again, once again to the people and place I love. There are many of you that have known him longer, more closely and intimately. I have felt so absent, yet still, even now . . . I marvel at the connection to Ohana resonating within my heart.  Sam and Patricia and so many of you make that possible. My eternal aloha and gratitude to you.


I met Sam when we performed in Taming of the Shrew at Diamond Head Theater over 15 years ago. He introduced me to his 'crew' at the Picasso in the Alana Hotel. The Picasso was not a nightclub . . . but it was. It was not a piano bar . . . but it was. It was one of the classiest joints I've ever had occasion to hang and the people made it so. Being welcomed into that circle has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life – what an honor to be part of Sam's life and earn his trust and love.


So for Sam and I (and many of us) part of life was theater, having a drink or two, talking story and jazz, jazz, jazz. He taught me more about Jazz then I could ever imagine. That love lives on – just as Sam does. So wherever there's a musician or crooner singing a tune, whether under a bridge or beboppin at a jazz joint – Sam is there. Where ever a singer sings 'Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most' or 'Lush Life' I am with Sam . . . all over again. I'm married to a beautiful and very talented singer now and Sam got to meet her. Because of Sam's influence – some of the songs he taught me are the one's my wife performs. It is much of his style and sense of life, expressed through the soul of music that has been transmuted and lives on through all of us.


We all come from different worlds, cultures and times. All inseparably conjoined. I am an emergency room Nurse at the San Francisco VA hospital now but am also a hospice nurse. My father was a veteran and his death took me away from Hawaii nei.  Sam was a vet and our friend and his death reunites so we celebrate his life and how he lived it. There are such things as duty, honor, and commitment and Sam encapsulated all these values and more.  I work with veterans every day and some talk and others do not. Sam was a man's man – at least to me. In my experience he exemplified the archetype of a peaceful warrior through his strength and gentleness.


As many of you know he spent much his life with what I fondly and with great respect refer to as the War Corps. In contrast, Patrica was a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1966 - 1968 and I was a volunteer in Fiji from 1985 – 1987. That is how she and I became friends. In 1996 Jim Hesse and I started Shakespeare on Sundays and I invited Patricia to meet this cool, older and distinguished gentleman. I got busy with the group and of course Patricia introduced herself and the rest, well . . . you know the rest. I am proud, honored and deeply happy at my role in getting two of the most wonderful people I know to hang together.


So that's it. Few, if any of us will remember much of what is said today. These words are not as important as the energy Sam brought to this universe and its affect upon our hearts. I am proud and blessed to have become a better man because of Sam Polson.


Malama pono Sam . . . a hui hou.