Richard D. Curtis Sr., retired treasurer of Curtis Farms Supermarkets and Curtis Compacts, died at Milton Hospital on June 12.
Mr. Curtis was born Oct. 15, 1922, in Dorchester, to the late Thomas and Alice (Callahan) Curtis. He graduated from Quincy High School in 1940 and went on to work as a butcher in his father’s meat market.
After enlisting in the Army in 1942, he was sent to the Tenth Armored Division where he was promoted to sergeant. He was selected to participate in the Army Specialized Training Program at Camp Gordon, Ga.
Following four months of intensive training, World War II turned for the worse and the Army discontinued the program. Mr. Curtis joined the “Battle Babies” of the Army’s 99th Infantry Division and shipped out of Boston in September 1944. He arrived in Belgium to join his division on the front in the Battle of the Bulge, attacking the Siegfried line in Germany.
In December 1944, he received shrapnel wounds from an 88-millimeter shell and was saved by four medics who carried him five miles through the knee-deep snow in the Ardennes to a first-aid tent. He was transferred to a hospital in Malmedy, Belgium, and then immediately evacuated when the Germans moved to invade the town.
After several operations, he recuperated in southern England, where his brother, David, who was with the Airs Corp and stationed there, was able to visit. Mr. Curtis considered himself lucky to be wounded early in the war, as his regiment went on to suffer a 115 percent casualty loss with many of the replacements killed, wounded or captured.
He returned to the United States and attended Burdett College, graduating with a degree in accounting in 1947. In 1954, he and his brothers opened up their first grocery store in Quincy, and went on to operate seven Curtis Farms Supermarkets, 32 Curtis Compact convenience stores, and a liquor store, all on the South Shore.
Mr. Curtis was president of the Holy Name Society at St. Mary of the Hills Parish and belonged to both Rotary and the Knights of Columbus for more than 20 years.
In 1978, he retired and took up golf as a second career. He was a member of Wollaston Golf Club for 55 years. After 32 attempts, he finally won the Fallon Cup tournament with Geoff Sisk in 1989. He served twice as golf chairman and house chairman, and then as vice president and president.
Mr. Curtis received Wollaston’s first Distinguished Service Award in 2000. Later, he founded and directed the annual Octogenarian Tournament at the club. He golfed every winter in Florida at Jupiter Hills Country Club for 16 years and Tequesta Country Club for two years.
He is survived by his wife, Connie; his son, Richard Jr. and his wife, Joan; his daughters, Lisa and Deborah and her husband, Burgess; his grandchildren, Caroline, Natalie, Teresa, Kathleen and Matthew; and his siblings, David Curtis, of Florida, Jean Barrett, of Braintree, and Dorothy Kelley, of Milton.
He was the brother of the late Thomas Curtis, S. Alan Curtis and Mary Berlo.
A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated in St. Elizabeth Church on June 17. Burial was in Milton Cemetery.
Donations may be made to Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, 811 W. Evergreen, Suite 303, Chicago, IL 60640.
Arrangements were by the Dolan Funeral Home.