Correction: This obituary, which orginally ran on September 16, contained incorrect information regarding Terry Curtis’ funeral mass. The correct date of the mass is Saturday, November 8 at 11 a.m.

Theresa “Terry” Kerwin Robles Curtis passed away September 3, 2025. A long time resident of Callicoon NY, she was born in 1929 at Fort William McKinley in the Philippines, the youngest of five children born to Colonel Orryl S. Robles and Mildred Malone, of Tampa, FL.  

The child of an army officer, she often recalled her colorful childhood in the deep south in the 1930s as well as recounting the culture shock when her father was posted in Brooklyn, NY and Watertown, MA. Her family settled in Siesta Key, FL in her teens near her father’s family home on the Gulf coast. Her father, a multigenerational Floridian, instilled in Terry a passion for the natural wildlife that they found in the gulf outside of their door, frequently temporarily adopting whatever was crawling around outside. She carried on this tradition with her own children with Ogdale (mole), Ringo (ring neck snake), 6 baby bunnies (The Bunnies), a baby chickadee, and a variety of creatures.

She studied art at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota followed by a brief stint in NYC where she took classes at the Art Students League and worked as a NBC Guidette in charge of tickets at The Howdy Doody Show. As a professional artist  she excelled in the mediums of watercolor and oil painting as well as creating pottery, often using a unique blend of painting on ceramic ware often with figural adornment. 

In 1954 she married V. Edward Curtis in La Jolla, CA, where he was serving as a naval aviator. Soon after they took up residence on the Curtis Nursery farm in Galilee, PA and in 1961 moved into the house they built in Callicoon, NY.  During the 1970s, Terry taught art at St. Joseph’s Seraphic Seminary and had a store, The Treehouse/Chickadee Pottery And Painting where she sold her own pieces as well as the work of other local artists. 

She was a gifted horticulturalist and an avid self-taught learner, immersing herself in everything from the science of learning disabilities to animal husbandry right up until her death just shy of 96. Long before foraging was a trend, she was collecting mushrooms and ferns. She was also a VERY dedicated soccer fan (FC Chester City and The NY Power). 

Terry is survived by daughters Valerie Boss (Jeremy), Hollis Curtis Perdan (Phillip), Jessie Curtis Baade (Jason), Christine Curtis, granddaughters Diana Boss, Pheobe Baade, Lindsay Lee, and Morgan Loch as well as her sister-in-laws Mary Curtis and Kit Curtis and many cherished nieces and nephews and great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband Ed as well as her siblings Francis, Patricia, Nancy and Kenneth. 

A funeral mass will be held for Terry on November 8, 2025, at 11 am at Holy Cross Church in Callicoon, NY. Per her request, it will be short without a lot of talking. 

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her honor to The Upper Delaware Volunteer Ambulance Corps, The Callicoon Fire Department and Camp ID (a camp for children with primary immunodeficiencies and their families located in Camp John Marc, Dallas, Texas) at the Cook Children’s Hospital website donation page using “Camp ID-Immunology” in the notes field or mailing checks directly to the hospital Attn: Foundation.