Curtis Joseph Austin

Husband, father and teacher Curtis Joseph Austin passed away peacefully at home in Moses Lake on August 16, surrounded by family, after a long battle with cancer. He was born on June 5, 1933 in Missoula, Mont. to Curt James Austin and Mary Monahan Austin. Curt was the sixth of seven children. His father converted to Catholicism in order to marry his mother, and Curt was proud of his Irish Catholic heritage. His father owned a general store, the “C.J. Austin Co.” in Missoula for many years. The store, where Curt grew up, has been named to the historic register. He graduated from high school in Missoula, and after working for a number of months at the Mercantile (a local department store), decided college was preferable to working, enrolling at the last minute at what was then Montana State University, since renamed University of Montana. He confessed to his family that he was a somewhat indifferent student in high school, which everyone finds funny given his lifelong love of reading and learning. After completing a degree in business, Curt was drafted and joined the Navy in 1955. He spent nearly two years in the Pacific, spending much of his time at sea reading history and literature from the Yorktown’s library, including Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd,” citing that as one of his inspirations for becoming a teacher. He returned to Missoula after a short stint as a clerk at the State Department, and pursued a master’s degree in education.