I'm so sad that Curtis has passed on. I last saw him at a dinner, just before the Covid shutdown. I first saw Curtis present at a scientific meeting in 1967, he was already famous and I was starting in Nephrology as Postdoc ( I was in the audience). I remember thinking "how brilliant this person is". Many years late, in 1974 when I first came to Stanford, I attended the UCSF Nephrology Research Conferences and Curtis was regular attender. But we didnt have any relationship at that time. In 1980, I joined the UCSF faculty. I had developed an interest in something called NMR (later to be called MRI) and I was interested in finding ways to change the intracellular phosphate and ph levels of kidney and liver. Curtis had done a lot of work on the effects of fructose loading, and this seemed to be a good model for my work with NMR. This launched a collaboration which led to several publications. Curtis took a strong interest in my work, and became a mentor to me (I'm 9 years younger). He helped me write some grants, and provided mentoring advise concerning dealing with UCSF politics since I was trying to raise funds and obtain space to develop a MRI Center. This would have been one of the first MRI Centers in the world!! Specifically, we were negotiating with Phillips Medical on a deal worth $8 million, and there was an upcomming meeting in Washington DC. I believe that Curtis had inherited a membership in a private club (was it called the Metropolitan club?) in DC and he arranged an elegant dinner with UCSF leaders and Philips Medical people. This led to a successful gift of $8 million worth of MRI equipment and support to our program at UCSF. It was one of the first MRI research centers at any university in the world. It also launched my new career out of nephrology, into the world of MRI.
Around that time Floyd Rector, another Texan, (who was also one of my other mentors) became Chair of Medicine at UCSF. We arranged a celebration dinner with Curtis, Floyd, Morrie Schamblan, and Henry Bourne. We called ourselves the Gang of 5. We had so much fun drinking and gossiping that we started having dinner at great restaurants with lots of food and drink 4x/year.
For some reason, I always remember Curtis ordering Sand Dabs, while I was ordering steak. These dinners became annual dinners and we continue them to this day.
When Curtis met Suzie, and then told us of his upcomming Wedding, we insisted on organizing a batchelor party, at the North Beach Restaurant. It was a hilarious evening. I had taken up a collection and the best gift we could think of was a silk "smoking robe". I knew that Curtis didnt smoke, but it was a very handsome silk robe. I never knew if Curtis actually ever used this, but it seemed a very fitting gift at the time.
Curtis was like a watchful older brother to me. He was a friend and a mentor.
Without question he was a gentleman, very kind, always paying attention to details, never rushing (in great contrast to me). His approach to science matched his personality, very methodical, never rushed, very objective (again in contrast to me. I'm always in a rush, and I've very intuitive in my science).
We shared many interests: We were both fans of Robert Caro's books on LBJ (still waiting for the last one to emerge) and James Baker (of Longview).Curtis had spent time in NY , and I'm a NY er. We all care about science, medicine, and academic values: truth and helping others. He often spoke of his family, I remember that his son was ,at one time witing musicals, and then went into the world of finance (at least this is my recollection).
It was very sad when Curtis had his accident and head injury, and so rewarding to see his recovery. Suzie has been such a fantastic support.
Those of us remaining in the gang of 5: Floyd, Morrie, Henry, and I , really miss Curtis and extend our condolences to Suzie and his family.
Mike Weiner