William Wheaton Curtis Jr.

William “Bill” W. Curtis, Jr. was born November 17, 1944 in Houston, Texas to William W. Curtis, Sr. and Blanche Durrenberger Curtis. He passed away peacefully on October 6, 2016 after a valiant 2 year fight against Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia (AML).

Bill attended schools in Houston, graduating from Jefferson Davis High in 1963. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1967 with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering.

Bill met Kathleen Abbett and married in 1970. Bill and Kathy were married 45 years. They celebrated their 35th anniversary with a vow renewal in 2005. They are members of the United Methodist Church of Missouri City.

He served 2 years (1970-1972) in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. Bill received a letter of commendation for the work on the development of the Helium-Neon Laser Hit-Kill Simulator.

His engineering career involved working in oil field services designing non-destructive testing equipment for the inspection of oil field tubulars. He was especially proud of the four patents he co-authored: 5534775, 5656786, 5867275 and 6249119.

Bill was a loving husband, father, and grandfather. His interests were photography, video editing, boating, and vacationing on cruises. Among his favorite cruises were Alaska and the Panama Canal.

He is preceded in death by William W Curtis, Sr. (father) and Blanche Durrenberger Curtis (mother).

He is survived by Kathy (wife), Stacie (daughter), her husband Michael and granddaughter Cassidy; Robert (son), his wife Amy and grandson Noah; Steven (son) and his wife McKenna; sisters Gertrude Okhuysen and Betty Bloomfield; 4 nieces and 3 nephews.

A memorial service will be held at the United Methodist Church of Missouri City on Oct 24, 2016.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations of blood to the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center or your local blood center. Monetary donations can be made to cancer research at MD Anderson, Houston, Texas or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.