A legend profiled: John Curry marks his 70th year in the hospitality industry
Seventy years ago, John Curry was making sure guests were comfortable at Curry’s Camp Baldy, a resort his parents owned in the Sierra Nevada in California.
In May Curry was doing much the same thing, but on a grander scale — offering his expertise in hospitality and resort management as a consultant on the Caribbean island of Tobago.
Curry turned 77 in May, marking a remarkable 70th year in the hospitality and tourism industry, much of that time on Hilton Head Island.
“My folks had a resort in Southern California, and I started making fires in the fireplaces and that sort of thing,” said Curry of his start in an industry that brought him to Hilton Head Island more than 30 years ago.
Even before arriving on Hilton Head to serve as executive vice president at Sea Pines Resorts, Curry had a successful career. He had worked in numerous management positions at his family’s resorts in California and as director of hotels for the Walt Disney Co.
But Curry’s role in shaping the hospitality industry on the island and throughout South Carolina started in 1973 when Edward “Ebbie” LeMaster, president of Sea Pines, lured Curry away from Howard Johnson hotels.
The island was, of course, different in those days.
Sure, tourists came during the April-to-September busy season, but “the rest of the year you could lay down on the highway and not get run over,” Curry said.
By Jim Faber, (The Island Packet, Hilton Head Island, S.C.McClatchy-Tribune Regional News)
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