Dr. Walter Richard Curtice

Dr. Walter Richard Curtice, age 88, peacefully joined his wife, Dixie, on Monday, January 1, 2024, at the Newark Manor Nursing Home in Delaware. Walter was born and raised in Rochester, NY, with his older brother Robley by their parents Robley and Charlotte Curtice where he played football and was a prodigy in mathematics and engineering. He met the love of his life Dixie, when he “crashed” a high school dance at the Rochester YMCA and followed her to Cornell University where he completed his bachelors, masters, and PhD in Electrical Engineering. He worked, five years each, at Raytheon and as a Professor at the University of Michigan, before moving to Princeton, NJ, to work at the RCA David Sarnoff Laboratories for 26 years and raise the family. Walter was world-renowned in semi-conductor research with 11 patents including the “Curtice Model” for Galium arsenide transistor development. After leaving RCA, he worked for Siemens Corporation and had his own consulting business. Additionally, he mentored electrical engineering PhD students at Lehigh University. Walter loved his family and enjoyed weekends barbecuing in Brant Beach, NJ, as well as camping and fishing on Alexandria Bay in the Thousand Islands, NY. Walter was a devout Episcopalian and an usher at All Saints Church in Princeton, NJ. He was also a big Elvis fan and enjoyed singing along to any Elvis tunes he heard. Walter was the great, great, great grandson of Ebenezer Curtice, a Revolutionary War hero, who helped found Webster, NY. In addition to his parents, Walter was preceded in death by his loving wife of 62 years, Dixie (Davis) Carolyn; brother, Robley Evans Curtice, Sr. (Mary); and brother-in-law, John P. Davis. He is survived by his three children, Christine Kitson (Robert) of Newark, Cynthia McAllister (Dr. Brian) of Middletown, and Dr. Walter Scott Curtice (Kelley) of Westerley, RI; sister-in-law, Joyce Davis; nephews, Glenn Davis (Patty), Robley Evans Curtice III (Suzy) and their 3 children, and Jason Curtice (Cristina) and their 2 children; niece, Denise Dickson and her child and grandchildren: Christopher, Joy, Brennan (Jasmine), Colleen (Nathaniel), Craig, Ariana, Kaelyn and Cayden; and a great-grand daughter, Emma. A memorial service will begin at 4 pm on Friday, January 12, 2024, at Spicer-Mullikin Funeral Home, 121 West Park Place, Newark, DE. Interment will be held privately. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Walter’s memory to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Avenue, Floor 17, Chicago, IL 60601 or online by clicking here or to Helping Haiti Orphans, PO Box 323, Wyoming, RI 02898 or online by clicking here.