Niagara loses a prominent 'Patron of the Arts'

It was with a great deal of sadness I read last evening (July 8th) that James Curtis, known to his friends as 'Jim', passed away on the weekend. I have known Jim for many years since his retirement, and a host of people will remember him from his teaching days in Pelham and area from the 50s to the 80s. With Jim's passing, we have lost a great booster of the arts in Niagara.

Jim was born in St. Thomas, Ontario in 1932, and in 1952 he graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in Philosophy; he also became an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in 1950. From 1955 through to 1974 he was a much-loved teacher of both history and music at Pelham District High School in Fenwick, and until his retirement in 1988 he was a member of the history department at E.L. Crossley Secondary School near Fonthill. He was a gifted writer, and in fact he authored a manuscript, "Our Living Past", an extensive survey of world history centering on mankind's intellectual and artistic achievements. This was used by countless numbers of his students over the years.

Perhaps many people will remember Jim as a lover of music, although they may not know he was a student of famed harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. He played both piano and harpsichord, of course, and was a choir member in his community as well. His support of the Niagara Symphony goes back many years, having served on the Board from 1979 to 1992, and in fact he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement award in 2002. Until recently, he and his wife Audrey were always present at the Niagara Symphony Masterworks concerts at Brock Centre for the Arts in St. Catharines.

In his retirement years, Jim amassed an amazing collection of mostly classical CDs, including probably the largest private collection of Bach's Italian Concerto and the Goldberg Variations. His love of Glenn Gould was legendary, and in later years his admiration for Bach specialist Angela Hewitt knew no bounds. For me personally, many a day was filled with searching for a rare, hard-to-find Bach recording by either Gould or Hewitt along with any number of other CDs he simply had to have. In the 1990s at Downtown Fine Music and in later years through my website, A Web of Fine Music, Jim was a frequent visitor and caller to enquire about something he had heard or read about. There were times his enthusiasm would get the best of him, but he was always a gentleman and a pleasure to know.

If you have time this evening, I would suggest you pay a visit to the final hours of Jim's visitation at the James L. Pedlar Funeral Home at 1292 Pelham Street in Fonthill from 7 to 9 pm. There will be a celebration of Jim's life in the chapel on Thursday morning at 11am. I hope many of the people who have been touched by this most uncommon man over the years will come out and pay their last respects. He gave so much to his community; it is time for the community to come out and say thanks!

Take care, Jim, you will be missed.

July 9th, 2008.