CURTIS–John Pelham, MD, a physician for 25 years in northeastern Dutchess County, New York, John Pelham Curtis died peacefully August 17, 2019, at his home after a long illness. He was 81. John was born June 27, 1938, in New York City to Helen Kingsbury Curtis and Herbert Pelham Curtis, the third of four children, and grew up in New Canaan, CT. He attended the Pomfret School, graduated from Yale College in 1960 and Albert Einstein School of Medicine in 1964.
For two years during the Vietnam War, he was Captain at the United States Army Hospital, Camp Zama, Japan. In 1971, he settled with his young family in Millbrook, NY and opened offices there and in Dover Plains as an internist and pulmonologist. The Millerton house and property he bought not long after became his abiding home. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Ellen “Wendy” Chinn Curtis, whom he married in 1966. He and Wendy had three children: Ellen Boiselle and her husband Phillip, Boston and Florida; Sarah Curtis and her husband John Petrini, Brooklyn; and Jeptha Curtis and his wife JoAnn Hong, New Haven. His sisters Anne Curtis and Francis Hardie live in New Haven and Pittsburgh, respectively; brother Frederick Kingsbury Curtis of Bainbridge Island, WA died in 2016. John leaves four grandchildren, Ella, Theo, Garrett, and Natalie; and two step-grandchildren, Ramona and Joe. John was a kind and loyal friend; an indulgent and much-loved father and grandfather; and a devoted, adored, and adoring husband. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 26th, at 2:30 pm at the Flagler Memorial Chapel, Millbrook School, Millbrook, NY. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Hospice of Hudson Valley in John’s name.
