Samuel B Folsom

July 24, 1920 - November 12, 2022

Lt. Col. Samuel Bruce Folsom USMCR, died late Friday night at his residence in Sherman Oaks, CA. It was fittingly at the end of Veterans’ Day. He was 102. He was born in Quincy, MA on July 24, 1920 and grew up in Peabody, MA where he was raised by his maternal aunt and uncle.

Sam Folsom started his naval career in the late 1930s as a merchant marine cadet at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, on a square rigger crossing the Atlantic at eight knots and finished his naval service supersonically as commanding officer of a Marine fighter squadron in 1958. Col. Folsom was a much decorated veteran of Guadalcanal, Okinawa, and Korea. In his four thousand piloting and test piloting hours he is recorded as having flown some forty-six types of aircraft from Piper Cubs to a B-29, possibly a record of sorts. Strangely, the highlight of that flying career came while bolted securely to the ground in a high altitude test chamber at Wright Field. An equipment malfunction left him at an altitude of 73,000 feet without oxygen.

Colonel Folsom moved on to a career with PanAm in NYC where, as Director of Special Projects, he was involved with several new ventures including the construction and operation of the PanAm Building Heliport. After PanAm went under, Sam was variously engaged as Director of Real Estate for the Hertz Corporation’s Eastern Region, a commercial real estate broker, White House NAFTA advisor, print model, sculptor, writer, painter, poet, world traveler and guest. At one point during this quiet period at age seventy-seven (in what one would say a last desperate grab for glory), he was instrumental in physically collaring a bank robber amid the wind blowing the stolen $12,000 in small bills along West 68th Street at Broadway. For this achievement, he was awarded a commendation for exemplary courage from the Police Commissioner plus “fifteen minutes of fame” through associated extensive national media attention, including an appearance on the Conan O’Brien Show.

He is survived by, his wife of 72 years Barbara Cole; by two children Lindsey (Yvon Rivest) and Gerrit (Jo Kissack) and three grandchildren Alana, Georgia and Grace.