Excerpts from obituary published in San Diego Union-Tribune on 11/12/2017:

Richard Earl Curtis was born in Beckley, West Virginia, on November 17, 1930.  He attended 14 schools before the ninth grade.  In 1949 he entered the U.S. Naval Academy.  Upon graduation in June 1953 he started a career in the Navy spanning 30 years.  For the next several years he enjoyed a succession of 2 to 3 year tours in New Jersey, ship tours, Norfolk, Virginia, Key West, Florida, and NATO command headquarters in Naples, Italy.  After that the Navy send Dick to Harvard University Business School where he earned a MBA, with Distinction, in 1961.  Next came a series of tours of duty in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, San Francisco, California, and Charleston, South Carolina.  Dick had always told the Navy to send him anywhere but Washington, D.C., so following Charleston, the Navy sent him to Da Nang, Vietnam, for a one-year tour.  Dick always considered his time in Vietnam as his most interesting and challenging tour.

Next followed a series of duty tours over 13 years – Washington, D.C; Charleston, South Carolina, where he was the Commanding Officer of the Naval Supply Center.  His final tour in D.C. culminated as Deputy Chief of the Naval Supply Corps.  In 1986, Dick retired from active duty and moved to San Diego, California, where he worked for four years as Vice President, U.S. Elevator Company.  He finally retired for good in San Diego but in 2012 returned to northern Virginia to be closer to his family.  He passed away on November 2, 2017, survived by his wife, three children, six grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)