A storyteller’s tale

As 2007-08 International President Dave Curry’s life unfolds, an underlying message emerges: It’s all about the children

By Dick Isenhour

Ask Dave Curry to talk about his childhood and, with a dry, deadpan delivery generally reserved for your favorite, storytelling uncle, he says, “I was born in Boise, Idaho, at a very early age. In fact, I was practically a baby when I was born.”

But seriously folks, Kiwanis’ 2007-08 International President was born in 1954, the first of nine children of Jim and Luanna Curry. He says he neither liked nor disliked being the oldest child in the family; it was only life as he knew it. “The oldest children,” he notes, “absorb some responsibilities for how life goes for their siblings, and that’s how it was with me. With that many younger brothers and sisters, I had to be their caretaker sometimes. I learned about ‘serving the children of the world’ in my own household.”

President Dave believes his rise to the position of caretaker of Kiwanis—a role affirmed by his election as International President during this past summer’s International convention in San Antonio—is all part of a lifelong journey of service that took root during childhood, sprouted during parochial school and college, bloomed during stints as a community and corporate leader, and has been bearing fruit during 18 years as a Kiwanian. He shared details of that journey with Kiwanis magazine during an interview peppered—like his formal speeches and presentations—with anecdotes, inspirational quotes, and an occasional one-liner. Here are excerpts:

Kiwanis magazine: Raising nine children must have been a challenge for your parents. How would you describe them?

Dave Curry: My parents were the traditional couple raising a young family during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. This was an era in which the father usually worked outside the home and the mother stayed home to raise the family. My parents definitely fell into that mode.

My father owned a business college for a number of years, but sometime along the way, the (US) government began subsidizing vocational technical schools and that crushed business schools. He had to totally abandon that passion and go into other things. He eventually ended up working as a permanent deacon in the Catholic church. He actually was a paid deacon, so that became his ministry.

KM: Was all this in Boise?

DC: No. This was all in Butte, Montana. When I was four years old, my parents moved to Butte so my dad could manage the business college. I was raised in Butte, and we still call Butte home today.

KM: Can you recall any event or time from your youth—a defining moment, if you will—that helped shape the person you are today?

DC: Well, yes, and this may sound strange, but at parochial school there was a teacher—I think her name was Sister Charles Marie—who was very much into discipline. She could have pitched for the New York Yankees because she could turn around, eraser in hand, and nail anybody in the room who was talking.

She was tough, and a lot of kids hated her. I absolutely loved her, though, because she also was very much into rewarding effort. At the end of the week, for example, she gave a candy bar to the person who did best in math. She taught me there are rewards for those who apply themselves and work hard to accomplish goals. It’s a lesson I still apply today.

Most of my early influences are associated with religious activities, like my early involvement in the Catholic Cursillo movement, a charismatic program that helped me get in touch with myself so I could relate to God and others. We used to get together once a year for encounter weekends. A diocesan coordinator gave me a shot once at coordinating one of the weekends, and I suggested that instead of doing them once a year, we’d be better off doing a couple of them a year so we could get more people interested. Only one leader thought the suggestion was a good idea, with the rest of the leadership team telling me I’d never be able to get enough folks for two weekends a year. I talked to the diocesan coordinator, though, and he at least was willing to let me give it a try. From him I learned that even though some embrace the status quo, you should never be afraid to try new things. I see many applications for that lesson in Kiwanis.

KM: Wasn’t it through the Cursillo movement that you met your wife, Eva?

DC: Yes. After you went to an initial Cursillo weekend, you attended get-togethers about once a month. Eva was going to get-togethers in Missoula (Montana), while I was going to Butte. Once there was a get-together in Deer Lodge, Montana, where we actually met. And then later, she took a job in Butte, not knowing that she would never leave.

KM: Would you describe it as love at first sight?

DC: There were traits that attracted both of us to each other immediately, but we dated for a couple of years before we decided to get married. We got married in 1985 and have been married for 22 years now. We have five children and a ton of grandchildren.

KM: What is the best part of being a grandparent?

DC: A lack of “ownership” of a child creates a freedom to embrace them as they are. I’m going to give you a good example. We took all the grandkids down to Yellowstone Park and one of them was acting up. We never got angry or intense with him or had a talk with him. We just let him be him and enjoyed the experience and laughed at it.

KM: You mentioned your mom was a stay-at-home mom. Is Eva a stay-at-home mom?

DC: She stayed at home until the kids were out of school. Then she went back to her career as a nurse and also completed her master’s degree. Her going back to get her master’s degree inspired me to go back and get a master’s degree. Now she’s an oncology nurse, a profession suited to her because she is empathetic and able to present the prescribed medications and treatments. It’s a tough profession, and she’s really good at it.

KM: Why did you decide to get your master’s degree in philanthropy and fundraising?

DC: Well, I believe there are lots of areas in our organization where people seem to have desire and expertise. Some people are really good at growth and sponsoring others into Kiwanis clubs. Some people are good at fundraising. Some people are good at hands-on service and coordinating projects. I’ve always felt a lot of personal satisfaction on fundraising side of Kiwanis. And because of some efforts that were associated with raising money for IDD and raising money for an orphanage, it became apparent to me that what my skill set was and that there’s actually a profession associated with that: philanthropy. So that’s why I was interested in getting additional information. Fundraising and philanthropy is something I can do both as a Kiwanian and as a citizen of my community.

KM: Isn’t your favorite Kiwanis story about those kids at the orphanage?

DC: Yes. Because of Kiwanians in the Montana District and the Kiwanis International Foundation, we were able to sponsor an orphanage in Nha-Trang, Vietnam. For Christmas, each of these little kids got a stipend and they were supposed to go this village and use it to buy new clothes and a new set of shoes. Instead, they each came back with an older set of clothes and sandals instead of shoes. They also came back with dry beans and rice to take care of the mountain people nearby who had had a really tough winter and didn’t have enough to eat. They wanted to help. I took great pride in knowing Kiwanis helped them experience what it is like to be caregivers themselves.

 I think basically down deep, we all have this desire to be significant in the lives of others. And that’s all Kiwanis is—a vehicle to be able to do that. If we feel appreciative and the other people involved have that same spirit, we can command a tremendous amount of energy toward helping people. We should be proud that this is the nature of our organization.

KM: Eva also is a Kiwanian. Did you both join Kiwanis at the same time?

DC: No. I’ve been in Kiwanis since 1989 and am a member of the Silver Bow, Butte club. She joined several years ago and belongs to the Sunrise Butte club. She can’t make our noon meetings because of her job. We still do many Kiwanis-related things together, though.

KM: You once said you joined Kiwanis for the wrong reasons. What did you mean?

DC: I was a city-county commissioner in the mid-1980s and spent a lot of time going around talking to all the service clubs—one of the traditions all the politicians do. At the Kiwanis Club of Silver Bow, the members were having fun, interrupting me while I was talking, and cracking jokes. I guess you could say they were extremely rude. When I got out of there, though, I knew I had to be involved in the community somehow and that it was this particular club I wanted to join. It wasn’t Kiwanis’ mission that attracted me; It was the fun-spirited nature of that Kiwanis club. So I joined for all the wrong reasons.

KM: Since then, what have you found most rewarding about being a Kiwanian?

DC: When I was incoming club president in 1995, our club sent me to the International convention. I was in the audience, listening to somebody talking about the Worldwide Service Project and Kiwanis’ efforts to rid the world of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). I experienced a humanitarian awakening. I suddenly realized the impact Kiwanis was having throughout the world. It changed my image of Kiwanis and its potential.

I left from that convention inspired. This was surprising to my fellow club members, because at a club board meeting the year before, I had been the only one who voted against bringing in a theater group to raise money for the IDD initiative. I thought we should save money for the local community and the projects we were doing. I lost that one. Our club held this fundraiser, but lost $1,200.

Well, I came back from convention all inspired about IDD and found myself at a board meeting suggesting we try this thing again, but do some different things, like seeking corporate sponsorships, to make it successful. We tried it again, and raised more than $2,000. Like they say, once a man’s mind is expanded, it never regains its original shape. That convention gave me a global perspective.

KM: Is this what prompted you to serve Kiwanis, first on a division and district level, and then on an International level?

DC: That, and a lot of encouragement from others. When I was club president, our club had such a good year I was asked to run for lieutenant governor. We had had growth, and we had doubled the money we were investing in our community. So I consented to be a lieutenant governor and really took it seriously and, subsequently, was encouraged to consider running for governor someday. Well, I decided to run early, because the Board counselor to our district was (1999-2000 International President) Nettles Brown and I wanted to serve with him. So that’s how, in 1999, I ended up being a governor.

Then, a couple years later, there were four openings for International Trustee but only three candidates. Nettles thought I did a pretty good job as governor and encouraged me to run, which I did. I won the seat, but finished fourth out of four candidates.

The first night after the election, I couldn’t stop wondering how someone could campaign as hard as I did and still finish fourth out of four. The second night, though, I stayed up all night thinking about Kiwanis. I envisioned what a force Kiwanis could be, based on our success with IDD. I began to see clearly the potential Kiwanis has at both the club and International levels; what a force—a humanitarian force—we could be.

At 6:30 the following morning, Eva woke up, saw me sitting at the table writing, and asked if I had been to bed. I told her no, and that I had decided I would run for International Vice-President/Treasurer. I felt led based on the visions I was having. 

KM: Once you decided to run for International office, it took you three tries before you were successful. Was there ever a point when you started second guessing yourself and wondering if this was what you were meant to do?

DC: Absolutely, but I believe that if you believe something can happen, you can make it happen. Without getting into the nitty-gritty, there’s a lot of praying and believing involved. When you know there’s a spiritual process of belief, it’s hard to give up on that. I also had a spiritual advisor—I believe everybody should have one. I talked with him after my second loss, and he told me I had to trust and persevere. Part of the whole process in believing something is going to happen is persevering. So though it was tough to well it up, I started believing it was still going to happen.

KM: When you stood up to accept your nomination for International Vice-President/Treasurer, there was a teleprompter malfunction and you had to deliver your speech away from the podium. Is this an example of your journey being “blessed”?

DC: I believe it was, but I had already decided I was going to give my speech without the podium and without notes. It’s funny, because I practiced my speech the day before and stunk up the place. It was awful. My practice was horrible. And (International staff member) Diana O’Brien, who’s the most soft-spoken person on the planet, came up to me in the evening and said, “You know, Dave, you might consider doing it from the podium.”

I laughed at her and said, “You know, if I'm going to be president of this organization, I absolutely have to be able to stand in front of a crowd without a prepared speech. I have to do this.”

Well, during the business session, I just picked up the microphone and all of a sudden the computer feeding the teleprompter just went down, which meant the podium would've been shut off anyway. I was told I would have to stop everything because it would take a good 10 minutes to get everything back up and running. I told them not to worry about it. When I grabbed the microphone and walked out there, I delivered it just absolutely fine—not like I had the day before—and there was this sense of calmness like this was the right thing for me to do.

KM: As you take the helm of Kiwanis International, what do you see as the organization’s strengths?

DC: One of the biggest strengths we have is that we are an organization of good-hearted, passionate people who should be very proud of what they bring to the organization, not just in terms of the service they provide but the example they set for others to follow.

If you go down to Ecuador, you see people who are just absolutely passionate about medical and dental missions. If you go over to Europe, you see clubs and districts that are very passionate about Special Olympics and helping handicapped children. From all of the regions, there are people getting a sense of satisfaction from being involved with Kiwanis and truly having an impact in their communities.

KM: What do you see as the challenges that are facing the organization?

DC: We have to break free of our perceived limitations. Organizationally, we have to envision ourselves as a million-member organization doing something significant, having a significant impact on the world.

We also have to have that same vision of breaking free in our existing clubs. Sometimes there are those who are not interested in helping their club grow, taking it to the next level, if you will. But all it takes is one leader, one Kiwanian whose excitement about Kiwanis and his or her Kiwanis club gets others excited and attracts new people to the club. We need to break free of visualizing that we cannot be significant or that it might take too much to be significant. It takes nothing more than enthusiasm.