Carrol Curtis

Carrol Lavonne (Gerritson) Curtis died peacefully Monday, July 28, at home surrounded by family and friends and the love and presence of God. Lion-hearted, she lived faithfully until her last breath, like a brisk wind, her personal creed: To Live Life as an Adventure. 

Born in Rock Valley, Iowa, Carrol was the only daughter of Dutch immigrants Bertha (Van Essen) Gerritson and Cornelius Gerritson. Sadly, she was only 2 months old, when her father passed away from complications related to appendicitis. For the first few years of her life, Carrol lived with her birth father’s parents while her mother supported her through live-in domestic employment. When Carrol was 4 years of age, her mother married John “Jack” Wellong, and Carrol and her mother were reunited. Two years later, the family moved to Linda Vista, California and started a poultry business. From the age of 12 until she graduated from high school, Carrol learned and worked all aspects of the family business. This industrious work ethic and business acumen, instilled at a young age, was to serve her well throughout her life and career. When she graduated from Rosary High School in San Diego, her parents helped her buy a 1952 Chevy Convertible, and this launched her adventurous spirit on the open road in the rest of San Diego County & beyond!

While she was working at San Diego Gas & Electric, she met Alfred Curtis, a local ambulance driver. They married and had 3 children, Steven Ross, Michael John and Kathryn Lynn. For over 25 years, they owned and operated a very successful ambulance company, Pacific Ambulance, and a medical supply company, Pacific Sickroom, with offices in El Cajon, Chula Vista, San Diego, Pacific Beach and La Jolla. Always seeking professional development opportunities, Carrol worked alongside her husband in the businesses, as a purchasing agent. She was equally engaged in her children’s activities, and, for many years, was a player agent for boy’s baseball and girl’s softball leagues and a leader of a junior through senior Girl Scout troop, specializing in backpacking and outdoor survival skills. Once her children were raised, Carrol broadened her professional aspirations and went to work for Girl Scouts in San Diego-Imperial Counties as a Fund Development Director and Camp Director. It was not long before she was recognized for her exceptional management capabilities and was selected as the CEO of a Girl Scout council in Indiana, then Michigan and ultimately a large metropolitan council in Northridge, California. Even after she retired in 2000, she continued to work for GSUSA for a few more years as an interim executive director, working on short-term assignments to help re-organize struggling councils.

Always ready for the adventure of travel, Carrol visited her ancestral home and family in Holland several times, as well as other European countries, including Germany, Belgium, England, Wales, Ireland and Portugal. At the age of 69, she joined her son Steve and his family as they embarked on the trip of a lifetime—a rugged, one-year, trip around the world (see www.picadocurtis.net). A highlight of her latter years, she trained rigorously for months in advance and traveled by backpack in predominantly developing countries in Southeast Asia, India, east Africa and Mediterranean Europe; worked on 3 major volunteer projects helping to build long-tailed fishing boats in Cape Pakarang, Thailand, preparing the site to tap an underground spring in Maasai lands, Kenya, and helping to cultivate a community gardens project in Kabale, Uganda; and recorded her many adventures through a sketch book and travelog.

Artistically gifted, Carrol was an accomplished textile (skills she learned from and practiced with her mother), colored pencil, oil painting and icon artist, expressing her faith and love of God, nature and travel through these artistic mediums and bequeathing her quilts, drawings and paintings generously to her family and friends on special occasions.

Carrol is preceded in death by her husband Alfred Curtis, mother Bertha (Van Essen) Wellong, father John Wellong, birth father Cornelius Gerritson, brother Bob Wellong, sister Judy Young, and sister Betty York.

Carrol is survived by her son Steve, son Mike, daughter Kat, daughter-in-law Therese Picado, grandchildren Peter and Paul Picado-Curtis, niece Deborah Simonson and her husband John and daughters Reese and Kira, and the many friends, colleagues and girls she impacted through Girl Scouts and beyond. A memorial will be held at St. Thomas More Newman Center, 1850 Emerald Street in Eugene, Friday, November 28. The rosary will be recited at 12:30 p.m., followed by mass at 1 p.m. and a potluck pie reception.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Carrol’s honor can be made to Girl Scouts Greater Los Angeles at girlscoutsla.org/donate (specify, in notes, the Carrol L Curtis Outreach Endowment Fund), Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Evansville, IN at corpuschristievansville.org/donations/ or St. Thomas More Newman Center in Eugene, OR at uonewman.org/support-newman.