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Roland O. Curry

Obituaries | The Tube City Almanac | April 09, 2024

Roland O. Curry, a longtime resident of Sharon, PA, died Friday, April 5, 2024, in the cardiac intensive care unit of UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh. He was a young 86.
Rol ("Rawl") was born February 8, 1938, in Erie to Roland O. Curry, Sr. and Iola Mae Mang Curry. He was raised a Methodist.
After graduating in 1956 from Academy High School in Erie, he worked the day shift at General Electric in Erie while studying at GE's technical night school.
Rol served in the U.S. Air Force from 1961 to 1965 and graduated from its film school in Fort Monmouth, N.J. A math whiz, he used calculus to set coordinates for high-speed missiles, including the Minuteman, and shot films of launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California; Mercury, Nev., and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands. He talked of meeting and photographing President John F. Kennedy during a launch.

He earned Associate's Degrees at Allan Hancock College of Santa Monica and from the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. He also attended UCLA and what is now Gannon University in Erie and Edinboro (PA) University.
While employed at Household Finance Co. in downtown Sharon in 1965, Rol met the love of his life, Elizabeth "Betty" Reilly of Sharon, and married her on August 13, 1966, in St. Joseph Church, Sharon. They honeymooned in Cook Forest, where they would later vacation regularly with their four children.
Rol worked at Signal Finance in Greenville and then acquired nearly five years of training while working as an insurance agent for Connecticut Mutual. He became one of the top 50 insurance sales managers in Pennsylvania. He belonged to the Jaycees and completed service projects while living in Greenville. After he and the family moved to Sharon in 1975, he installed solar furnaces and co-founded construction and insulation businesses. Before retiring, he worked for several years for Mercer County Community Action Agency as a weatherization adviser, where he met and helped numerous people.
In 2017, Rol was honored as Hibernian of the Year by the Sons of Erin, Mercer County Division #1, in recognition of his "years of dedication to community service and his adherence to the Hibernian principles of friendship, unity and Christian charity."

Rol was a regular writer of letters to the editor and a devotee of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates. He enjoyed Erie ox roast, New Castle chili dogs, Jamocha shakes, Pymatuning custard, and Italian Nightmare subs, loved making donuts with family, and requested pineapple upside-down cake for his birthdays.
Rol was known to break out in song, and enjoyed world travel as well as dirt road shortcuts and RV trips with Betty to the East Coast and Great Lakes.
An avid fisherman and lover of the outdoors, campfires, castles, and environmental causes, Rol also loved sitting on the porch, drinking coffee, reading, feeding the birds and squirrels, and shooting the breeze with neighborhood friends (he never knew a stranger).
Besides his parents, aunts and uncles, he was preceded in death by Betty, in October, 2023; and his sister, Sandra Curry Gunesch, in 2021.
Surviving are his children, Kim, wife of Harry Pelles, Sharon; Cheryl, wife of Ted Popovitch, Sharon; Patrick, partner of Janet, of Norfolk, Va.; and Julie, wife of Richard Barsom, of Galway, N.Y.; a granddaughter, Cassandra Elizabeth Telega, fiancée of Jonathan Knapp, of New Lebanon, Pa.; a brother, James Curry, of Erie; and nieces, nephews and cousins.
Arrangements and cremation were entrusted to Willig Funeral Home & Crematory in McKeesport. Condolences and memories may be shared at www.willigfuneralcremationservices.com.

A celebration of life will be planned near one of Rol's favorite fishing holes.

Originally published April 09, 2024.

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