Portrait_Roger Culbertson:Layout 1
1/16/14
2:51 PM
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All photos by Thom Smith
Roger Culbertson with some of his pop-up books
tury such as Chronica Major, a book with rotating discs used to calculate holy days. Culbertson took inspiration from Lothar Meggendorfer, a 19th-century German illustrator who is considered the father of the modern pop-up. Over the years, Culbertson has worked with many at the top of their game including Jim Diaz, owner of White Heat, a pop-up operation in Santa Fe, N. M.; artist Jane McTeigue; and packager and former partner Claudia Bennett. From White Heat, Culbertson struck out on his own, forming Designimation with Bennett and moving to Philadelphia. In 1995, Philadelphia Business Journal ranked the company among the 12 fastest growing privately held companies in the area but the industry was changing. Culbertson moved Designimation to South Florida because of its proximity to Colombia, where most assembly work was being done. In 1997, he settled in Winston Trails, a Lake Worth golf community. That’s right. In addition to all his other talents, Culbertson is a decent golfer. He had won the Mississippi State Open, beating the members of the school’s golf team. If his class schedule hadn’t conflicted with practice, who knows? The move to Lake Worth allowed Culbertson and wife Linda to provide opportunities to promising young international golfers.
The whale from Pinocchio
The first was Jude Eustaquio, a student from the Philippines. He attended Cardinal Newman High School and, in 2004, was Florida’s junior golfer of the year. Ultimately, Eustaquio returned to the Philippines, which freed up a bed in the Culbertson’s house for Shosei Inokawa, a promising young Japanese golfer who attends American Heritage School in Delray Beach. Culbertson still plays golf but the pop-up business has faded. Much of the work – the tiny rivets, strings, wires – can be done only by hand, so production of even the simplest book often isn’t cost-effective. Culbertson puts out a book a year. He’s also devised a paper version of the Wright Brothers first airplane – seven pieces and no glue – plus a 36-insect mobile. And he’s found another rewarding occupation that helps pay the bills. He became a medical assistant and now supervises the office at the Outpatient Center of Boynton Beach. He makes sure patients are treated well. “I’m performing the whole time, everybody’s laughing. I make people feel good, that’s what I do and, in a sense, it’s what I’ve done my entire life,” he says. “I’ve always liked the word renaissance. That’s sort of what I am. I may not have really specialized in one significant field but I’ve done a lot of things that I enjoyed doing and that entertained other people.”
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