#Middlebury #Southbury
Attorney Curt Titus, now retired, awaits his lunch at the Hopkins Inn last summer. Curt’s love for his profession led him to work 22 years past full retirement age. (Photo courtesy Jan Titus)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Some people count the days until they can retire. Others, like attorney Curt Titus, 87, love their work so much they hate to give it up. Curt practiced law for 62 years before retiring at the end of 2019, 22 years after he could have retired.
The land use attorney said he continued to work because, “I enjoyed it. It was interesting. I wasn’t a litigation lawyer, so I didn’t have to go to court every day.”
Curt and his wife, Jan, live in Southbury now, but they are former Middlebury residents and Curt is a longtime member of the Middlebury Congregational Church. Fellow church member Malcolm Todt said, “Curt is one of the finest people you will ever meet.”
Speaking at a surprise retirement party for Curt on Dec. 22, Todt commented on Curt’s outstanding legal career and described Curt as a man with “the highest level of intellectual honesty and integrity.”
Todt mentioned all the pro bono work Curt did over the years. Some of the organizations who benefited from that legal work are the Middlebury Land Trust, Waterbury Hospital, and the Harold Leever Regional Cancer Center. He also served on the Middlebury Planning and Zoning Commission for 20 years, serving as chairman for more than half that time.
Jan said of Curt, “He did more pro bono work than most people do, but he loved it so much. When he was young, his father told him, ‘You have to give back to the community. That makes you a much better person.’”
Curt grew up in Washington, Connecticut, graduating from The Gunnery before going off to Williams College and then graduating from Harvard Law School in 1957. He worked at several legal firms over his long career, most recently at Tinley, Renehan & Dost. At the retirement party, the firm’s Jeffrey Tinley presented Curt with the prestigious Martindale-Hubbell acknowledgment for his legal ability and high ethical standards.
Jan said the surprise party at Vyne was truly a surprise. Curt’s daughter Laura, who was in China, asked Jan and her two daughters here to help put the event together. A few days before the event, daughters who live in other countries arrived, ostensibly to surprise their father for the holidays.
The day of the event, Jan made sure Curt got to Vyne for what he thought was going to be a family lunch. “He got off the elevator and was stunned,” she said. “He thought he was in the wrong place.”
She said he told her afterwards the surprise party was “the best Christmas present ever.”
We caught up with Curt by telephone the other day and asked him how he was enjoying retirement. Turns out he was at the law office sorting through years of files. He won’t be truly retired until that task is finished.
It appears there is no need for him to rush. Jan seems to be following in his footsteps. She has been working for the same company for 41 years. Like Curt, she loves her work, so she said she hasn’t given much thought to her retirement.
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