John Curnan
March 22, 1940 ~ December 31, 2017 (age 77) 77 Years OldShare using:
John Hoffman Curnan, Jr. was born on March 22, 1940 In Rhinebeck, New York. His parents were John Hoffman Curnan, Sr. and Jeanette Boomhower Curnan. John attended school in Rhinebeck, New York. Upon his graduation from high school he was presented with a Regents Scholarship to any college in the state of New York. He chose to go to Rensselear Polytechnic Institute although he was also accepted to MIT. He married Laura Haneberg on June 8, 1968 in Seattle, Washington. They had five children: Edward, Cecily, Joseph, Kathleen and Tobe.
John left college to help his parents through a difficult time and was drafted into the Army in 1963. He spent the next 18 months at the Artic Testing Station at Fort Greeley, Alaska where he experienced the great Alaska earthquake of 1964. After leaving the army he attended the University of Washington where he met his future wife.
John worked at Boeing as an engineer in the weights department during Boeing’s boom years and was laid off when the economy declined in 1970. John decided to try his skill at investing and worked for Channel 13 and the investment company associated with the program. He also worked for a CPA firm and did taxes for some large, defunct Seattle businesses like Ernst.
If he would have had a bigger nest egg, John would still be buying and selling. But as funds ran low he began working for car dealerships as Parts Manager. John’s last dealership was Bellevue Jaguar, Porshe, Audi, Lotus.
He ended his working years as Maintenance Director at High Point Village.
John was a licensed pilot and loved to take his children on flights. His wife preferred flying in larger airplanes. He also loved baseball and cheered the Mariners through thick and thin. And he was an ardent fan of the Seahawks.
After retiring John developed heart issues along with other life threatening maladies. He also suffered from dementia but true to his life-long habit of never being a bother to anyone he continued to live at home. John supported many charities. Any organization dealing with hunger, children or animals received a yearly check from him.
John died on December 31, 2017 at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way after suffering a third heart attack. He will be remembered by his family as a generous, quiet, ethical man who smoked a pipe and lived life by his own standards.