John A. Curtis ’48 *51

Jack died unexpectedly Dec. 5, 2004, at his Cape Cod home.

Jack was born May 14, 1926, in Harbin, Manchuria, and grew up in Tokyo, coming to the United States with his parents shortly before World War II.

Prior to attending Princeton he served with the Army of Occupation in Japan, where he made use of his knowledge of the country and the language. Throughout his life he visited Japan often, working there and collecting arts and crafts.

At Princeton he majored in architecture, graduating with highest honors and staying on to attend the Graduate School. After one year he transferred to MIT for his master’s degree. At Princeton, music department courses inspired his lifelong love of classical music and opera. At MIT, Jack studied architectural acoustics under Professor Robert Newman. This specialty caught his interest and he joined Newman’s firm, Bolt Beranek and Newman. The work was so rewarding that he made it his career, becoming director of architectural acoustics at BBN before he retired in 1986.

Jack endowed a fund at Princeton to encourage international students in architecture.

He is survived by his niece and nephew, Catherine and Daniel Adachi. He will be missed by his many friends worldwide.