Kenneth Richard Curtis

Kenneth Richard Curtis, born December 2, 1930, in Bellingham, Whatcom County, WA to Ruth Isadore Easterbrook and Richard Roy Palmer. Ken was the oldest of 2 sons. His younger brother Jack passed away in September 2022. Ken always spoke fondly of his years in Sedro-Woolley where Roy built their family home. Numerous stories of him and his younger brother Jack’s antics. It appears from these stories that Ruth had two mischievous boys at times. It is there where Roy left his family, and Ruth became a single mother to raise Ken and Jack alone. Ruth then moved to Seattle with her two sons where she met Mabry “Bud” Curtis when he was their landlord. Ruth and Bud fell in love and were married in 1948. Bud adopted Jack and Ken and thereby gave the family name Curtis. Ken graduated from West Seattle High School and held various jobs until enlisting with the United States Marine Corp on February 23, 1951, for 3 years. Ken served in the United Nations Spring-Fall Offensive and a Second Korean Winter from October 5, 1951, to Nov 27, 1951, and November 28, 1951, to September 8, 1952, his occupation Machine Gunner. Ken received an honorable discharge on February 22, 1954, at the rank of Corporal. He was awarded with the Korean Service Medal, UN Defense Service Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. In July 2018, Ken also received the “Ambassador for Peace” award from the Minister Patriots and Veteran Affairs South Korea and the South Korean Consulate.

In July 1957, during Seafair, dad met the love of his life, Gloria Nicholson. Both Ken and Gloria’s parents matched them up as they worked together - Bud with Sam (Gloria’s father) and Ruth with Julia (Gloria’s mother). Ken wasted no time proposing to Gloria and on November 16, 1957, they were married, a marriage that lasted for 60 years. Together they had two children, Julie Ruth Curtis of Mountlake Terrace, WA and Carol Lee (Raymond) Smith of Marysville, WA. Ken is survived by his grandchildren, Seth Alexander Smith (Heather) and Alayna Juliana Sowders (Kris), and great-grandchildren, Lilli, James, and Rose.

After leaving the military, Ken started what would be his career to attend a machinist trade school and then working in several machinist companies until taking a City of Seattle Machinist exam in 1963. After successfully landing a position that would be his career for 30 years with his final title of Station Maintenance Crew Chief in March 1995. Ken loved his job, although frustrated at times with how slow the government worked, especially when he thought for safety reasons especially if something needed to get done quickly. He was proud of the work that he did for the city and proud of his staff.

Besides the work that he did, Ken was most proud of his family. He spent many years working on the family tree and shared stories, and yes even scandals that he found in his research. After retiring, he and Gloria sold the family home at Green Lake and bought a motorhome. They became “snowbirds” traveling mostly within the United States with occasional trips to Canada. They made frequent trips to Las Vegas to visit their grandkids Seth and Alayna. They would also travel back east where his daughter Carol and her family moved. Their big trip was to the Scandinavian countries and was able to find the home of Gloria’s grandfather in Porsgrund Norway. After that trip, Ken made the decision to move to Assisted Living as Gloria’s dementia was advancing. Their first home was at Ballard Landmark and finally at Vineyard Park which was close to his oldest daughter Julie. Ken was caregiver to Gloria until the last year of her life when she went to memory care at Vineyard Park and even then, was constantly a devoted husband until her death in January 2018. After Gloria passed, Ken and Julie went often to Spokane to visit his grand and great grandkids for Thanksgiving and just because. There were also three trips to Albuquerque NM to see his brother which meant so much to him – it was like they picked up where they left off after so many years. Ken moved in 2020 to Julie’s home when Covid hit and lived there until his passing. Ten months before his passing his daughter Carol and her husband Ray made the big move to Washington State from New Jersey. Ken had wonderful times with Carol and Ray. There were many car rides showing Ray, the Pacific NW as well as their frequent trips to the casino where he enjoyed winning and having family cash his tickets. Ken’s life’s mission and priority was his family. He made every moment with the people he loved count, and he will forever live in all their words, actions, events and gifts they give to the world.

Funeral services will be held at the same location on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at 11:00 am. Burial will be immediately following the service.

Join the family after the service and burial at Diamond Knot Brewery in Mountlake Terrace 5602 232nd St SW.

In lieu flowers the family suggests the following charities:

-Wildsalmon.org

-alivingtribute.org

-Lynnwood Northwest Veterans Museum