James William Curtis

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Curtis, James William (Bill) of Shoreview died on September 12, 2014. A lifelong advocate for social justice and human dignity, Bill came from a loving family of artists, devoted to the promotion of tolerance, freedom, and fairness. His childhood was filled with building models and honing his eye for detail; eventually his ethical principles steered his career choice. As a young man, he volunteered for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Neshoba County, Mississippi in 1964, where he was privileged to work with local farmers during the tumultuous times when three civil rights workers had gone missing. He would tell you that it was the men who agreed to run for the Crop Allotment Board who had shown the real courage. He had tremendous gratitude for Mr Lacy Triplett, a community leader who had taken under his guidance the white boy from Chicago who had lots of determination and not much experience. He invited Bill to breakfast, fed him fresh-caught squirrel, pancakes and cane syrup, biscuits and gravy. Triplett's stamp of approval gave Bill entry to the rest of the farm community and enabled the work to take place. He attended Antioch College, marrying and later divorcing fellow Antiochian Linda Oldham. After receiving his BA from Antioch in 1967, he worked for Chicago-Read Mental Health Center and Citizens for a Better Environment while completing a Master's Degree in Psychology at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Bill worked at several mental health and counseling centers before moving to Minneapolis in 1987. His favorite job was at the Bridge for Runaway Youth in Minneapolis: he found the challenge of working with kids and their parents energizing and he had a genuine appreciation for teenagers. He met and married Daphne Gates Thompson and during their twenty years together he was delighted with his new role as father and grandparent to her family. Bill had been a family therapist for much of his career, and after many such years, established himself as a divorce mediator, which he saw as a natural extension of his previous work with families. Not one to stand on a podium and hold forth, Bill was known for the quiet, deep conversations he held on a one-to-one basis with family and friends. More than one has said that his good counsel got them through tough times. Bill enjoyed kayaking, canoeing and cross-country skiing, loved Celtic and mountain music and was ever enthusiastic about his two summers as a teen at Camp Widjiwagan in the north woods, to which he returned several times in later years. He was a voracious reader on many subjects and a student of Civil War history. At his church, he served on the green team and a committee dedicated to guarding the interests of the University Avenue neighborhood during the light rail project. He was proud to have been one of those who worked to defeat the marriage amendment in Minnesota in 2012. Born February 12, 1941 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to James and Emily Bausch Curtis, he was preceded in death by his parents and survived by his wife Daphne of Shoreview; his brother Peter Curtis (Mark Gibbons), Marine on St. Croix; children Fran DuCharme (Philip Harrison), San Diego and Dave DuCharme (Heather), Woodbury; granddaughters Jeadon, Gaby and Taya; cousins and steadfast friends. A service in celebration of his life will be held at Unity Church Unitarian, 733 Portland Ave, St Paul, on Saturday, September 27, 2014 at 10:00 am. Memorials preferred in lieu of flowers to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU, or the charity of your choice.

Published on September 14, 2014