Curtiss Harper Clark obituary

#MiddleburyCT #GranthamNH #Obituary

Grantham, NH — Curtiss Harper Clark – long-time editor of “The Newtown Bee” – passed away unexpectedly on the morning of June 14, 2024. Curtiss was an empathetic soul who family and friends will always remember for his quiet wisdom and kind eyes – not to mention his razor-sharp wit. He was an extraordinary writer, a skilled guitarist, a nature photographer, a former apiarist, a passionate bibliophile, a dog enthusiast, and so many other things. But, most importantly, Curtiss was a loving partner, brother, stepfather, uncle, and step-grandfather. His step-granddaughters will remember him as someone who never visited empty-handed, frequently sent hand-made postcards, and left hand-written coupons for extra play time at his next visit. His family, friends, and loved ones will deeply miss him.

Curtiss Clark was born in 1950 to Harriett and Russell G. Clark. He grew up in Middlebury, Connecticut. He attended The Hotchkiss School in the late 1960s before graduating from Dickinson College in 1973. Thereafter, he found employment as a local journalist at “The Newtown Bee,” walking through its doors as “a fresh-from-college English major,” to use the words of “The Bee,” eager to immerse himself in local reporting. Little did Curtiss know that he would spend the next 43 years of his journalistic career working at that historic newspaper.

During that time – “Bee” publisher R. Scudder Smith remembered in 2016 – “Curt engaged himself in virtually every area of company operations, including working in the press room.” From the 1980s onward, he served as a managing editor at the newspaper before becoming its editor in 2009, making him the first person outside of the newspaper’s Smith family to serve in that position since the late 1880s. Readers enjoyed his award-winning “Editorial Ink Drops” as well as his engaging reflections and photography in his “Field Notes” column.

Curtiss was an especially thoughtful writer, one unafraid, on occasion, to “ruffle a few feathers,” as the “Bee” noted at the time of his retirement. During his time at the paper, Curtiss (to use the words of a “New Yorker” article from 2013) “came to see Newtown as a kind of ‘laboratory, a small ecosystem.’ The longer he stayed at the paper, the more he felt that it was shaping the community, not just by advocating for zoning laws and public gardens but by creating self-awareness and coherence.” Serving in that role was a defining privilege of his life. He loved Newtown.

Never did Newtown need Curtiss more than after 20 children and six educators were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. Though deeply shaken by those events, he – alongside so many other thoughtful residents of Newtown – helped guide the community through those days of unspeakable sorrow.

Curtiss Clark was ultimately awarded a 2013 New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA) Allan B. Rogers Award for his editorial “Answering For Our Town” after those events. “The Bee’s” first special edition – published just three days after the Sandy Hook shooting to console the heartbroken community – received a NENPA Publick Occurrences Award. The New England Newspaper Hall of Fame later inducted him into its ranks in February 2016, alongside more than 100 distinguished colleagues. Curtiss, an especially humble man, would almost certainly prefer to leave out those honors, but the reality remains: he was a journalist of the first rank.

Curtiss retired from “The Newtown Bee” in 2016 and shortly after moved to New Hampshire, where he spent time with loved ones and enjoyed long walks in the woods with his camera and dog. Curtiss is survived by his two siblings, Russell G. Clark and his wife, Jane Deane Clark, of Grantham, New Hampshire, and Elizabeth Erskine and her husband, Wayne Erskine, of Swoope, Virginia; stepchildren Phoebe Ryland Gauthier (née Lott) and Pieter Lott; son-in-law Brandon Gauthier; and step-grandchildren Hadley and Emmeline Gauthier. He is also survived by his companion, Thyrza Whittemore.

To honor the memory of Curtiss Clark, embrace the words of St. Luke – quoted by Curtiss in his “Answering For Our Town” editorial – as a mantra for our lives: “And On Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.”

To leave an online condolence, please visit munsonloveterefuneralhome.com.