Julian Wheeler Curtiss (1858–1944), was president of the Spalding sports equipment company and a pioneering promoter of golf in the United States.Obituary from ''Golfdom'', 1944
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Early life

Curtiss was born in

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Easton, Weston, and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. Located within the New York metropolitan area ...

, on August 29, 1858. Among his siblings was older brother,

Edwin Burr Curtiss Edwin Burr Curtiss (July 14, 1852 – March 30, 1928) was an American attorney, bookseller, and a director of A. G. Spalding Bros. Early life He was born on July 14, 1852, in Fairfield, Connecticut. He was the third child born to Henry Tomlinso ...

, a lawyer and later, bookseller. He attended

Hopkins Grammar School Hopkins School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational, day school for grades 7–12 located in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1660, Edward Hopkins, seven-time governor of the Connecticut Colony, bequeathed a portion of his estate to found s ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

and the

Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1879, where he had been active in various sports, crew especially.

Career

Curtiss joined the A.G. Spalding Company after college. In 1885 he became secretary of the company, and in 1920 president. He retired from the presidency in 1933, but remained on the board, serving as its chair until 1938. On a trip to London in 1892 to buy leather to make footballs in the U.S., he was introduced to

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

. He brought home with him $400 worth of equipment and started the first manufacture of golf equipment in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In 1892 with his brother,

, and others he started the Fairfield County Golf Club, today known as the Greenwich Country Club. Curtiss served as the club's first President, from 1892–96, and again from 1921-34. Curtiss was affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union and became treasurer of the American Olympic Committee. He was one of the figures, together with

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

and others, responsible at the turn of the twentieth century with popularizing sports in the U.S. and making it a central part of American culture. He designed the first basketball in association with

James Naismith James Naismith (; November 6, 1861November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote ...

, the inventor of the game. From 1902 to 1911 he served as graduate coach of the Yale crew team, turning out five championship outfits, and from 1918 to 1940, he refereed many of the foremost crew races in the East.

Personal life

In October 1880, Curtiss married Mary Louise Case, daughter of Joseph S. Case of New York. They settled in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

where Curtiss commissioned the architects

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture, Be ...

, who had also designed the original clubhouse for the Greenwich Country Club, to build him a house. Together, Julian and Mary had four children. He was very active in Greenwich, serving as the first president of the Greenwich YMCA. He also served on the Greenwich Board of Education from 1913 to 1937, chairing it from 1924 to 1937. He died at Greenwich Hospital on February 17, 1944.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtiss, Julian Wheeler 1858 births 1944 deaths Golf people People from Fairfield, Connecticut Yale Bulldogs rowers American business executives Yale Bulldogs rowing coaches People from Greenwich, Connecticut