Wayne D. Currie, Lt. Col, USAF (ret)

Wayne Daniel Currie, of San Antonio, Texas passed away on December 27, 2024, in San Antonio. He was born in Mobile, Alabama, to parents, Daniel Arch Currie and Edwina (Patterson) Currie. He was the eldest of five children.

Wayne attended Catholic school in Mobile, Alabama, graduating from McGill Institute in Mobile. His high school classmate was Jimmy Buffett. Wayne attended Florida State University on a track scholarship, and he earned Varsity Letters in Track and Field. He was a member of the Air Force ROTC and Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. He was awarded a B.S. in Business Administration in 1968.

Wayne served in the United States Air Force from 1969 to 1990, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. His assignments included Grand Forks AFB, ND; MacDill AFB, FL; Nakhom Phanom Air Base, Thailand; Randolph AFB, TX; and Lindsey Air Station, Germany. He was a human resources officer, missile combat crew commander, and deputy base commander. He earned an M.B.A. from the University of North Dakota in 1977 during his assignment as a missile launch officer at Grand Forks AFB. He served as Director of Personnel for the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, where he was selected Senior Personnel Director of the Year for Air University for four consecutive years. He contributed to winning the Cold War and was present in Germany for the fall of the Berlin Wall. Wayne volunteered to serve as the Lindsey AS (GE) Track and Field Coach and led his teams to 9 championships at 17th Air Force and three Air Force Europe team championships. He served as the HQ Air Forces Europe delegation chief to the Air Force track and field championships. He established an on-going 10K run at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

After retiring from the USAF, Wayne served as an employment services manager and a workers compensation claims manager in Texas, Ohio, and Alabama for over 20 years. From 1990 to 1994 in Bryan, Texas, he was a mediator and hearing examiner for workers’ compensation claims for the State of Texas. For 7 years he managed the Dayton Customer Service Center for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation and was responsible for numerous special projects at the state level. He directed Capps College, a medical assistants’ career school, in Montgomery, Alabama for two years. He supervised claims processing for Business Insurance Group in Montgomery for 7 years, retiring from that company in 2013 at his Full Retirement Age. He also chaired the Montgomery Claims Association for several years.

Wayne married Karen Sue Williams on June 20, 1981. Wayne and Karen retired to Hill Country Retreat in far west San Antonio in 2013, where Wayne served as a member of the Nominating Committee at the Hill Country Retreat HOA for 4 years and as the Chair for 3 years. He is known for his skill in recruiting volunteers to join committees. He participated regularly in patriotic parades with the Hill Country Retreat Veterans Group. He also participated in the HCR Community Cleanup twice each year, collecting trash from the trails and roadside. He put away the trash cans for his neighborhood (two streets) every Monday morning for more than 7 years, a task he initiated because he wanted the neighborhood to look nice and to help his neighbors. Wayne was very handy around the house, doing cooking, shopping, cleaning, etc. He dearly loved his two 14-year-old rescue cats (both sadly succumbed to cancer in the summer of 2021). He loved to walk with his Fitbit and tried to get at least 10,000 steps per day, a goal he achieved until his foot problems in August 2020.

Wayne is survived by his loving wife of 43 years, Karen Currie; siblings, Sandra Harris, Glen Currie, Gary Currie, and Mark Currie; 12 nephews and nieces and their children; and a host of other loving relatives and friends.

The family will receive friends for a visitation on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, from 10:30-11:30 AM, at Porter Loring Mortuary North, 2102 North Loop 1604 East, San Antonio 78232. A Celebration of Life service will follow at 11:30 AM, in the Porter Loring North Chapel. Interment with Full Military Honors will follow at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery.

LIFE CELEBRATION SERVICEWEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 202511:30 AMPORTER LORING MORTUARY NORTH CHAPEL

Memorial contributions may be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and Daisy Cares of San Antonio.

Click here to view the Livestream service for Lt. Col Wayne D. Currie:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iQIGNwylTEHxdV98qN5Q12_NyVR1IUe5/view?usp=sharing