Edward H Curtiss Memorial Service

December 14, 2018 - South Tulsa Baptist Church

The Memorial Service for Edward H Curtiss was a wonderful celebration of a life well lived. 

Edward H. Curtiss  1924 – 2018 by Jeffrey S. Curtiss

Of all the things that I could say today about my dad, I want to say that my prayer is that I finish my life as well as he finished his.

I knew him from July of 1953 until a week ago Tuesday, but his life began in 1924, three decades before mine.

He was the only son of a single mom who was widowed when he was just an infant.

She raised him and his three older sisters, the youngest of whom was 12 years his senior, during the great depression years of the 1930’s.

During those difficult years his mom baked and sold cakes and pies out of their home to help support the family.

As a child, the most influential men in his life were his brothers-in-law, particularly Elvin Drake the husband of his Sister, Ethaline. Elvin was 21 years older than my dad.

As a youngster, Dad spent his after-school hours and weekends working in a gas station owned by a cousin, and he spent many of his summers working as a counselor at the Big Bear Boys Camp in Big Bear Lake, California where his brother-in-law, Elvin was a director.

His early life and his teen years weren’t all that much different or outstanding from any other young person of his time or even of our day.

However, in the summer of 1942 at the age of 18 my dad went to war in answer to this nation’s call. He fought alongside the hosts of young men and women that now comprise what we call, “The Greatest Generation”.

His tour of duty in the war was spent aboard a destroyer escort, guarding convoys of supply and troop-bearing ships as they transited the Atlantic Ocean between the U.S., Europe, and Africa. When not on convoy duty his ship’s assignment was to hunt German submarines up and down the east coast and in the Caribbean Sea.

When the war in Europe ended, he was reassigned to a destroyer in the Pacific Theater where they saw no combat action but took part in the first atmospheric tests of the newest and deadliest weapons ever developed my man. My dad was an eyewitness to four atom-bomb tests at the Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls as a participant in Operation Crossroads.

He had had an interesting and adventurous life, but in 1948 his life took a dramatic turn.

My dad entered the Navy as an idealistic high school graduate of 18. Six years later he was a battle-tested, world-traveled sailor. In those six years he had been tested as only the military and war can test a young man. During his service with the Navy he had seen man and nature at their best, and at their absolute worst.

Having personally served in the Navy I understand that military life in a time of war can shape your worldview into something a bit more jaded than most people’s, but when my dad heard the salvation message, and the story of Jesus Christ, he re-set the course of his life toward Jesus and never looked back.

Of all the great stories my father told us as we grew up, none were told with as much heart and enthusiasm as when he related the change in his life between the night, he asked Jesus Christ to be his Lord, and the next morning when he awoke to an entirely new and vibrant world. My dad was radically saved. II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. My dad experienced that change and it thrilled him.

From the day he was saved until his last trip to the hospital, my dad was a voracious, ardent, insatiable student of Bible; always learning, always seeking; but he also put what he learned into practice. If you knew my dad for even the shortest time you knew that he was a follower of Jesus Christ. You knew that by the way he treated people, and because very soon after he met someone, he would ask them if they knew Jesus too. If they didn’t, he would make sure that they heard the story of Jesus and what Jesus meant to him, and what Jesus has done for them.

My dad loved people, he was a people person. It didn’t matter if you were a follower of Christ or not, his home; our home was always open to folks he met along life’s way.

A number of the people sitting here in these pews were young adults that my dad and mom met and folded into our family. Attorneys, accountants, flight attendants, artists, secretaries, musicians, air traffic controllers, foreign exchange students; they run the gamut, and some, now as many as four decades later, are still considered a part of our  family. And the ones who are family to us share our common bond of faith in Jesus Christ. Some of them share that bond because of the testimony of my father and mom, and the love of Jesus that flowed, and flows, through them.

You, know, I don’t recall ever hearing my dad refer to himself as a member of any denomination, or even as a Christian. If asked, he would tell you what church he attended, but my dad always told people that he belonged to Jesus Christ. That was his identity. Dad was a lot of things; Husband, friend, father, engineer, WWII veteran, wood worker, award-winning photographer, hunter, fisherman, outstanding grandfather, and great grandfather, but he found his purpose and his significance, in his Savior and everything about him flowed from that.

My father was a wonderful man but he was not without his faults. When you spend a lifetime with someone you see those faults, but when you know that this person loves you without condition those things about them that may be irritating, or quirky, or even funny don’t really matter, and matter even less with the passing of time, as you watch them run their race with patience, and in rock-solid faith that God is indeed working all things together for good to those who love Him and belong to Him, and are called according to His purpose.

When I look at the whole of my father’s life, I can clearly see the hand of God accomplishing His perfect work through the use of an imperfect, but wholly committed man.

I could tell you lots of very funny and great stories about my father, Edward H. Curtiss, but my purpose today is to honor him for who he was as his core.  His achievements and accomplishments are many; some of them are significant on a very grand scale, but I think that I can best honor him by telling you what I know he would want you to know about him.

In summer of 1948, in San Diego, California, just before he was honorably discharged from his service to his country, my dad said yes to Jesus, and then began to discover the simple and unalterable truth of the faithfulness of God and the rock-solid truth of His word.

I want to leave you with three short passages that I know my dad would give to you if he were standing here in my place instead of me in his. The first is, in a very real sense the key that can, if you choose to use it, unlock every one of life’s door you ever encounter.

Psalm 37:3, Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. My dad wisely took God up on that offer and found it to be true. By the way, that word, delight, means to get to know God like someone with whom you find yourself falling in love, because you will fall in love with Him. My dad loved God with all his heart.

The second is from the book of Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 5 and 6.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and don’t depend on your own ability to understand. Do everything as though He was standing right beside you, and He will direct your pathway.

The third is a pair of verses that my dad often prayed back to God during his last days. They are from Psalm 73, verses 25 and 26.

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26. That was his testimony during the worst of his last days.

We miss Dad terribly. We are grieving, but not without hope. We are feeling the pain of separation but not of loss, because we know that my dad is more alive today than he has ever been, and that we are going to see him again, maybe soon – who knows.

Allow me to leave you with this, the words of Job, a man of incredible faith; who knew unbelievable suffering but never lost his faith.

Here is what he had to say in the midst of his incredible pain and loss. He spoke of the future, bodily resurrection to eternal life, of everyone that places their hope and trust in God and His son Jesus Christ.

²⁵ “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
²⁶ “Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
²⁷ Whom I myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see, and not another. Job 19:25-27

That is how my dad lived his life, knowing that his Redeemer lives. And I know that it is a hope that he, and we would love to share with each of you.

On behalf of myself and my family; we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for coming here today to honor my father.

The front and inside of the Memorial Card / handout given to the friends and family who attended the Memorial Service.

This is the Video of the Military Honor Guard who volunteered to Honor Edward H. Curtiss for his 6 year service during WWII. 

Helen Francis "Babe" (Curtiss) Conner

9 May 1912 – 14 May 2014

Helen Frances “Babe” Conner was born May 9, 1912 in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Her father was Arthur Darby Curtiss and mother Lata LaVesta Launder. Her father was a florist who did landscaping work and worked in greenhouses. 

Helen was the third child with two older sisters, Ethelyne N. Drake and Ruby L. Grandfield, both now deceased. 

In the early 1920s the family moved to Los Angeles and lived on Idaho Avenue. In 1924 Helen’s brother Edward H., whom many of you know, was born. Ed would go on to marry Helen Tollefson – and the sisters- in-law were very close friends. Sadly, Arthur Curtiss never knew his son because Arthur was in the hospital from early 1924 to mid 1925, when he died. Helen was 12 years old. 

In 1929 Ethelyne married Elvin “Ducky” Drake who was a beloved figure in UCLA athletics for his entire career – Drake Stadium was later named after him, and the players loved him. 

 

Everyone had a nickname in this family. Ruby was called “Sis”; Lauren, Ruby’s husband, was called “Red”; you heard about “Ducky”; Ed was and is called “Bud”; of course there was “Babe”.

Babe graduated from University High School. She was  in its first graduating class. She was

extremely social and had some wonderful friends. They started a high school philanthropy club called Cosmos. She graduated right around the time of the Great Depression, and after graduation, Helen worked at the Tivoli Theater on Santa Monica Blvd for 25 cents per day. 

She met her husband John Wesley Conner who of course had a nickname – he was called “Wes” - and they were married in 1931. Both ended up working for Tucker McClure, Corporation which was a General Contracting business. Wes was an electrician and Helen was an excellent secretary who was an expert in short hand. During this time, even though World War II had not started yet, Tucker McClure was building military bases, and there was a lot of military activity going on in Ecuador. Helen and Wes transferred to the jungles of Ecuador around 1933 and they would live there for almost a decade.  

Interestingly enough, the doctors had told them they would not be able to have children, and for quite some time they didn’t. But in 1943 they decided to leave Ecuador to have their first child, John, here in the United States.  Helen was VERY pregnant. On the way home from Ecuador, their plane actually crashed in Mexico because of a landing gear failure. Amazingly, no one was hurt, but there was still this little matter of getting to Los Angeles to have their baby. Fortunately, they got here just in time. 

Wes and Helen ended up having two children – John Arthur born in 1943 and David O. born about a year and half later. The doctors were wrong.  John is married to Patricia Johnson and David is married to Jill Fry. 

While back in Los Angeles, Helen continued working for Tucker McClure as executive secretary. She used to ride the red car trolley from Venice Blvd to downtown LA, where she handled the company payroll. She always made sure her kids had their lunches packed before school, and would send the kids to school before she headed off to work.  

In 1960 Tucker McClure the owner of the business, passed away, and his son Allan took over. Allan ended up closing down the business and Helen helped with that process. Allan was also really into astronomy, and Helen helped him get some of his work published. He gave Helen and Wes a telescope, and this became one of her hobbies and interests. 

However, the closing of the business meant Helen needed a new job, and so she became the executive secretary for the California State University Chancellor’s Office, from 1960 to 1974. She worked for the President of the Council.  

She finally retired in 1974, age 62.  

She and Wes’s life in retirement was extremely enjoyable. She had a lot of friends, and she was still friends with some people from Uni High School, in fact the Cosmos philanthropy club kept going up until the 1970s. They met once a month. She and Wes were also involved in a club called the Huff and Puffs which was a square dancing club. They were part of a poker club, and she was a member of the philanthropy club called PEO International.

Helen and Wes traveled all over the world including Germany, England, Australia, Ireland, they even went to China in the 1970s which was pretty much unheard of. Their favorite place was Italy. They were both healthy and able to enjoy clubs, social events and they loved having the family, including their sons, daughters-in-law, and granddaughters Samantha, Cassandra, and Alexandra, and extended family over for family dinners. Babe hosted nearly every wedding shower, baby shower, anniversary party and many birthdays for the family. 

They were blessed with good health and a fun retirement together which they enjoyed until the 1990s, when Wes Conner died in 1994 at age 87. 

Helen was a member of the West LA Methodist Church on Butler Ave, then University Bible Church on Wilshire Blvd. In the few years I knew her, she asked me to call her Helen, I think she thought it wasn’t good for the pastor to call her Babe. 

The biggest spiritual influence in her life was Community Bible Study. Helen Curtiss first invited Babe to join in the late 1970s, and she really enjoyed it. Over time, her understanding of the Bible grew and she began talking more and more about the Lord Jesus as her Savior. She was faithful in doing her lessons and homework. After a while, she was asked to serve in the leadership group, as Dottie Larson’s transcriber in shorthand, which she did even into her 90s. She would type up her notes and send them to Dottie, and those teachings would end up all over the country. Babe loved the women of CBS and it made a huge impact on her life. The other CBS women really loved her, too.

In her last years, Helen was eager to go be with the Lord in heaven. Sometimes she would wake up in the morning and say “Oh darn, I’m still here.” She had no doubts about where she would spend eternity, not because she was a good person but because she had faith in God’s Word, that whoever truly calls upon and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. Well, she’s finally there. 

Her Memorial Celebration was held at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California May 28, 2014. 

 

Eulogy by Rev. Rob Brooks, University Bible Church

Edward H. Curtiss at Big Bear Boys Camp

Edward H. Curtiss was fortunate to be able to go to the Big Bear Boys Camp in Big Bear Lake, California when he was a boy. His Sister Ethelyne N. (Curtiss) Drake was married to Elvin C. "Ducky" Drake who was associated with the Big Bear Boys Camp (BBBC) in the San Bernardino Mountains for many years. At that time the city of Big Bear Lake was called Pine Knot.
Every summer from the age of 8 years until he graduated from University High School in Los Angeles, Edward would go along with Ducky to attend the camp for the summer. When he was old enough he participated as a counsellor. Most of the other boys were from the wealthy families in the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.

Photo: Edward Curtiss (R) & Harold Witherbee 1939

The following brochure is from the 1930's.

Here is the Brochure for Big Bear Boys Camp

The camp is still there but it is owned by the Presbyterian Church and called Camp TANDA on Lake View Drive.