Fr. Richard Curry, S.J., professor of Catholic studies and theater and founder of Dog Tag Bakery, died yesterday evening at the age of 72.
Curry also served as director of the Academy for Veterans, a program that serves to assist veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan who have been disabled in the line of duty with emotional rehabilitation, employment assistance and other services.
Dog Tag Bakery, which he founded in December 2014, seeks to employ veterans and their spouses while teaching tangible business skills. The bakery also has a partnership with the Georgetown School of Continuing Studies to offer employees night courses in small-business administration and entrepreneurship.
Curry said in a 2014 article in The Hoya [“Bakery Prepares for Launch”] that the bakery offers veterans the chance to pursue their dreams.
“Everyone should make the most of this opportunity. All of you veterans have great business ideas and you may find someone here with a similar idea and the means with which to make your dream come true,” Curry said.
Before joining Georgetown, Curry founded both the National Theater Workshop of the Handicapped, which offered disabled individuals the chance to perform, and the Belson Bakery Training School, which serves to teach disabled individuals how to bake and work at the bakery. Curry is also the author of two cookbooks.
Curry was well known at Georgetown for his unique “Theater and the Catholic Imagination” class, which served to teach expression and culminated with a tap-dance performance around campus, including in O’Donovan Hall and the Intercultural Center.
Curry received the Distinguished Service Award of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities in 1987, and received 25 honorary degrees from universities and colleges, including Georgetown University and Fordham University. Curry earned a Ph.D. in theater from New York University in 1977.
A full obituary of Fr. Curry will be published in a later issue of The Hoya.
Paddy Smith • Dec 23, 2015 at 3:54 pm
Your work for and with combat veterans will never be forgotten. You truly exemplified the founder of your order, St. Ignatius Loyola, himself a disabled combat veteran.
May Our Blessed Mother keep you!
Semper Fi!
Paddy Smith
Paddy Smith • Dec 23, 2015 at 2:14 am
Semper Fi, Padre!