Curtis H Halvorson

Curtis joins his mother, Viola; his father, Otto; his older sister, Jean; and his younger brother, Gary, in eternity. He remains in the hearts of Marjorie Halvorson, his beloved wife of 68 years; their daughters Christine (Donovan) Walsh, Judy (Chris) Whitman and Amy (Brian) Holzworth; and six grandchildren, Sarah, Maire, Benjamin, Nathan, Andrew and Ella.

Countless family pets — cats, dogs, turtles, mice, hamsters, frogs and geckos — have spent tiny, treasured lives in households shaped by Curtis’s affection for his fellow creatures.

Born July 26, 1930, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Curtis grew up on his grandfather’s stories of the American frontier. His Depression-era childhood and wartime adolescence imbued him with a lifelong resilience, integrity and love of unconventional foods. As far as he was concerned, a slice of Wisconsin cheese could make any sandwich delicious.

Curtis completed an undergraduate degree in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in 1952 and enlisted in the Army later the same year. His 15-month tour in the Korean peninsula, where UN and Soviet forces fought to determine the region’s future, earned him a Bronze Star for bravery. This was also his first encounter with the red-crowned crane, which wintered among the battlegrounds of Cheorwon Valley. Preserving this crane’s habitat — now the DMZ between North and South Korea — became a driving passion of Curtis’s life.

At the end of the war, Curtis returned home in search of a more permanent direction. He found two.

The first: A career with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. As a wildlife biologist, Curtis spent 37 years mapping the forests and wetlands of his grandfather’s American west, studying their animal inhabitants and advocating for preservation. He headed projects dedicated to protecting the black-footed ferret and Mt. Graham red squirrel; later, he served as a senior editor for various FWS publications.

The best: Marjorie Meyer, a red-haired first-grade teacher who pointed out the constellations for him on their first date. The pair met during Curtis’s graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and were married Dec. 29, 1956.

As their family moved across the country, drawn from Wisconsin to Montana to Colorado by the couple’s careers, Curtis and Marjorie’s daughters learned to start fires, shoot fowl and pitch tents alongside a series of stub-tailed Brittanys.

Curtis continued his wildlife advocacy and adventuring into retirement. He hunted game through the wilderness of southernmost Canada, traveled the globe with Marjorie, and became a research associate of the International Crane Foundation.

He also remained an active member of many veterans’ groups, attended the dedication of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., and collected military antiques throughout his later life. His handwritten display cards recorded the story of every rifle and uniform in his collection.

For Curtis, history was a material thing. Life, too, lay in the tangible: The habits of birds and squirrels, the sting of mountain air, the gaggle of grandchildren who filled his house at Thanksgiving.

He became a protector of both.

He is irreplaceable.

In lieu of flowers, Curtis’s loved ones encourage donations to the International Crane Foundation, World Wildlife Fund or Nature Conservancy.