Curtis Istre

Curtis moved to Houma, LA with his family when he was eight years old. His love story began when he met Gail Landry in the ninth grade. They were married in February, 1972.

Curtis proudly joined the second love of his life, the United States Marine Corps, in 1971 and was stationed at Cherry Point, NC, where he served as an air traffic controller and later as a master Computer Operator/IBMS 360. In 1977, he was assigned to the 6th Marine Corps District in Atlanta, GA as a Marine recruiter until his honorable discharge in 1979.

His civilian work included 18 years in the oil industry in Louisiana, Texas and Alaska. He then went to work for the Fruitvale School District as the Director of Information and Technology in 1997. Curtis retired from the district in 2014, after 18 years of devoted service.

The other loves of his life included art, history (specifically military history), archaeology, computers and science fiction. Curtis also loved great discussions of religion and politics, and would have certainly enjoyed analyzing the outcome of the 2016 elections with friends and family!

He is survived by his dear wife of almost 45 years, Gail, and his children Adam and wife Liz, of Ft. Hood, TX, his daughter Andrea of Bakersfield, his brothers George and Malcom of Houma, LA, his grandchildren Paige, Lucas, Zoren and Caitlin, and great-grandson, Hayden. He was preceded in death by his parents, Chuck and Beverly Istre.

Services for Curtis will include a visitation at Hillcrest Memorial Park on Tuesday, November 1 from 4-8 p.m. with a rosary at 6 p.m. A final service will be held at 10 a.m. at Hillcrest with burial following at the National Cemetery in Arvin on Wednesday, November 2nd.

His family would like to thank the following: Dr. Ha, Dr. Htoo and Dr. Yein of Kaiser Permanente in Bakersfield, and especially Dr. Cho in Panorama City, for their excellent care and concern during his illness; the caring, loving and compassionate nurses of ICU II at San Joaquin Hospital who cared for him (and his family), especially Ike, Patrick, Caitlin and Nancy; and most especially our "Fruitvale family" for their love, support and prayers provided during this difficult time.

SEMPER FI!!