Charles W. Curtis ’47 died on May 3, 2026, in Eugene, Oregon.
(The following was provided by the Register-Guard on May 20, 2026:)
Charles W. Curtis ’47
Charles Whittlesey Curtis passed away peacefully on May 3 in Eugene at the age of 99. Charlie was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on October 13, 1926, the first-born of two children to William and Ethel Curtis.
Charlie, his beloved wife Elizabeth (Betsy), and their three boys made Eugene their permanent home in 1964 when he took a position at the University of Oregon as a professor of mathematics. He started his academic career at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where his sons were born.
Charlie was a true New Englander, though he loved his adopted state of Oregon. He enjoyed visiting Maine, where he had many relatives, and where he and Betsy spent their honeymoon at his Aunt Miriam’s historic home in Brooksville. He and Betsy, a Connecticut girl who was his rock and best friend, would have been married seventy-five years in June of 2025. She passed away at age 96 in May of that year.
Charlie was a precocious child and serious student. He graduated high school at age 16; completed his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in Maine in two years; served in the US Navy for two years during World War II; and obtained his PhD in mathematics from Yale University in 1951. Charlie’s career in representation theory of finite groups took him and Betsy throughout the world over nearly seven decades, teaching, collaborating, and meeting new friends in Germany, England, France, Japan, China, and Australia. In addition to Madison, the family lived in Ithaca, New York; London, England; Princeton, New Jersey; and Charlottesville, Virginia. Two sons, Tim and Dan, hold cherished memories of seeing Albert Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where Charlie completed two sabbaticals in the mid-1950s and late 60s.
Highly respected in the world of linear algebra (finite group theory and representation theory), as well as a math historian, Charlie authored many books and journal articles, and delivered countless lectures at mathematics conferences. He and his frequent collaborator Irving Reiner wrote Representation Theory of Finite Groups and Associative Algebras, a two-volume set used in upper-level mathematics courses and still used in colleges today. Royalties from another textbook, Linear Algebra: An Introductory Approach, allowed the Curtis family to build a cabin in Yachats on the Oregon Coast in 1965.
Despite his prominence in mathematical research, Charlie loved teaching graduate level and undergraduate math courses at the UO and was a dedicated advisor to many graduate students. He served as the department head in the early 1970s, and retired as an emeritus professor. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
Outside of academia, Charlie enjoyed tennis (playing into his 90s), hiking, fly fishing, crabbing in Alsea Bay, and clamming in tide pools south of Yachats. The family cabin gave him great joy, especially hosting friends and family there for dinners and good wine. Though an accomplished cook himself, Charlie had a keen interest in restaurants and local foods: oysters in Point Reyes, lobster in Maine, and roasted lamb anywhere in the world. One of his longtime favorites was French onion soup, which he made weekly and always sought out in Eugene and while traveling.
He and Betsy enjoyed leisure travel to many places around the globe, including many European countries as well as Hawaii, Mexico, Alaska, and California. The two of them had friends from around the world, most of whom they knew through Charlie’s math career.
Charlie was proud of his service in the US Navy, and participated in many veterans’ events throughout his life. He enlisted in 1944 at age 18, and served for two years. His memories and photographs from those years were especially dear to him. Charlie was honorably discharged in July 1946, after serving as an Electronic Technician’s Mate, Third Class aboard the Navy Ship ATR 80.
Charlie’s wife, Betsy, and sister, Nina, predeceased him. Charlie is survived by three sons: Tim (Nanci), Dan (Julie), and Bob; grandchildren Spencer, Amy, and William; and many nieces and nephews. One grandchild, Sam, predeceased him.
Charlie was an engaged, curious human, always “thinking young” and refusing to admit he was getting older. This attitude kept him going for nearly a hundred years!