About Herr Curtis

Ancient History

    Ed Curtis was born in Portland, Oregon in November of 1951.  He spent the first 20 years of his life in the same house in the Northeast part of Portland.  His father built the house himself on weekends.  Ed's early years were spent working hard in school, getting into trouble with his brother and the other neighborhood kids, and playing basketball in the driveway and baseball and football in the vacant lot next door.  While Ed very much enjoyed participating in sports, his activities were severely limited by eye problems.  Ed was born with a detached retina and no vision in the left eye.  Surgery to restore sight proved unsuccessful.  In 1959 the retina in the right eye detached.  Two surgeries were able to preserve his remaining vision, but scar tissue due to holes, tears as well as a retinal scesis (tears within the 7 layers of retinal tissue) left him with a very limited field of vision, qualifying him as legally blind.   The polyethylene tube (scleral buckle) that maintains pressure on his right retina could be damaged by a hard blow to the head, thus leading to a subsequent detachment. For this reason his ophthalmologist prohibited him from participating in organized sports, PE classes in high school and idiotic things like diving into a pool.  Ed gave in to no organized sports, but continued to play pick-up games in every imaginable sport.  His house was located just one block from a bowling alley, where he spent many hours working for free games.  To this day bowling remains one of his favorite past times

Education

    Ed attended Joseph Meek and Rigler elementary schools.   He then attended Madison High School.  During his 4 years as a Senator he struggled to find his niche.  Participation in sports being prohibited, he finally found a place to call home on the Forensics team.  Ed competed in Debate, Informative Speaking, Impromptu and Extemporaneous Speaking and Radio Commentary for 2 years.  He earned the National Forensics League's Double Ruby Degree and was city champion in Impromptu. 

    From 1969-1973 Ed attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.  Here he majored in Communications, competing on the nation's number 1 ranked Forensics squad for 2 years.  He also served as ASB Executive Senator for 1 year.  In 1972 he participated in  the very first Junior Year Abroad Program in Munich.  He spent the first 8 weeks in Ebersberg (20 Km Southeast of München) at a Goethe Institut and then enrolled at the Universität München for 2 semesters.  This year was by far the most demanding and most rewarding year Ed ever spent in the field of education.  The credits earned during this year enabled him to earn a second degree in German.  Ed graduated summa cum laude from Lewis and Clark with a B.A. degree in 1973.

    Ed did his student teaching during the Winter of 1974 at Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon where he worked with his high school Forensics teacher Carolyn Young.  During the Spring and Summer of 1974 Ed looked for a teaching position in the field of Speech.  What presented itself, however, was a half-time teaching position in German at Corvallis High School.  He accepted the position and has been teaching at Corvallis High School ever since.

    During the summers  between 1975 and 1978 Ed worked on his Master's Degree at the University of Portland, taking one Summer off to spend 2 months traveling in Germany on his own.  In 1978 Ed graduated with highest honors from the U of P with a M.Ed. degree.  In 1985 Ed participated in a National Endowment for the Arts Summer Institute at the University of Oregon for teacher s of Social Studies and German.

    Herr Curtis organized 4 trips for students and adults to the German-speaking countries of Europe along with a variety of other field trips to restaurants (The Edelweiss in Vancouver Wa., The Berlin Inn in Portlnad and the Rheinlaender in Portland), museaums, Oktoberfest celebrations and elsewhere.

     Herr Curtis retired after 31 years of teaching (all in the same classroom) in July of 2005.  He substituted in the Beaverton and Hillsboro school districts in 2005-06.  In 2006-07 he taught German at Forest Grove High School, where he continues to teach this year.

Teaching Experience

    During his 36 years of teaching (31 at Corvallis High School) Ed Curtis has taught German 1, German 2, German 3, German 4, AP German, Beginning Speech, Advanced Speech, Argumentation and Debate, Leadership, Pre-Algebra, Yearbook and Computer Applications.  He acted as the advisor to the German Club, High Q Team (College Bowl), American Field Service Club, Junior Class, Student Council and Yearbook.  For 8 years he acted as  chairperson of the Worls Languages Department.  He  served  as the recording secretary on the school's Site Council.  He taught Conversational German (beginning and intermediate) for 2 years at Linn-Benton Community College, and he taught Early Bird German (before school) at Highland View Middle School for 2 years.  Herr Curtis was also a Master Teacher for the Intel Teach to the Future Program.  After retiring from teaching in Corvallis he substituted for one year in the Beaverton and Hillsboro school districts, and taught part time  at Forest Grove High School (now in his 5th year).

    Herr Curtis has been the recipient of Corvallis High School's Spartan Award and an award for Excellence in Teaching from The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars.

Interests, Sports and Activities

     Herr Curtis is an avid bowler and maintains an average in the 180.s   His high game is 278 and high series  is 723.  He is also an avid sports fan.  There is no bigger Seattle Mariner fan in Oregon (with the exception of Mike Galpin) than Ed.  He enjoys football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer and more.  He also enjoys reading, especially mystery and science fiction.  Many of the books he reads are actually books he listens to on a special machine he has on loan from the Library for the Blind.  Herr Curtis also enjoys music and has been playing the guitar since high school (although he has never had a lesson).  Whenever he can find the time, he enjoys composing his own songs.  Outside of the teaching field Ed's  interests include reading, bowling, crossword puzzles, song writing, and simply hanging out with his wife Lynn.

Family

   Ed's wife, Lynn, works in Technical Services at the main branch of the Hillsboro Public Library.  Sweethearts in college, they went their separate ways.  35 years later, after each had married, rasied a family and divorced, they found each other again - fell in love again - and were married.  Ed has 3 daughters from his first marriage (Charity, Christiana and Sarah) and Lynn has 2 daughters from her first marriage (Shaunna and Kerrie).

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