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This obituary tribute to Richard Curlee was submitted by JoAnn Yates, professor emeritus of California State University, Long Beach. Yates wrote this celebratory obituary for the March 2, 2008 ceremony of the Tucson Women's Club.
As a colleague of Dick Curlee, I might say that I was one of his oldest friends, and also a Professor of Communicative Disorders. We met in the doctoral program at the University of Southern California in 1961 when we jousted for the class's As, following very different mental sets. He was a deductive thinker, and I was an inductive thinker. Generally we came to the same conclusions and were amused by our deep differences and friendships.
My relationship with Dick was that of an older sister, who shared his intellectual humor and deep sensitivities for those with handicapping conditions.
While Dick had major post-polio body degeneration since childhood, he has never either mentioned his condition or complained of pain. He was remarkable in putting others at ease. He and his wife Jenny struck up a roaring friendship with my husband Bill and me. We traveled together with our two children, from birth until they were about 13 years old, when the Curlees left for Washington, DC. Before that we drove to all the California communities on weekends, from the desert to the sea, enjoying daytrips in a single automobile. Lord, we enjoyed it all, and we laughed constantly at life's little travel upsets. Dick and Jenny became surrogate aunt and uncle to our kids, over 12 years of holidays, and then they also returned to California to join us on Christmas holidays.
Dick spent his first few years (after gaining his PhD) in Washington, DC as an executive at the American Speech Language and Hearing Association. I joined the faculty of California State University, Long Beach as assistant professor to develop their new language development program, and a clinic as well as holding seminars. Then, Dick accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Arizona, teaching and doing research, and holding stuttering seminars. In time he briefly became department chair. He then went on to publish several books with Dr. William Perkins. He also worked as the research editor for the Journal of Fluency Disorders. While still teaching and writing, he also managed to find the time to become president of the Arizona Speech-Language-Hearing Association. I became president of the California Speech-Language-Hearing Association three years later.
Last year, in 2007 he was given Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for his dedication and service to the field of communicative disorders.
While it is difficult to compress such a busy, meaningful, and intellectual life into a few paragraphs—there is no denying the Dick Curlee, professor emeritus of the University of Arizona (1974-2008) had a celebratory meaningful life, and that his friends and colleagues will all miss him. I know I will.
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