Thursday, June 20, 2024
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May you rest in peace, Rich. You will be missed at Cornell and among your thousands of former students.
Rich / Professor Curtis was the most important professor/lecturer in the Dyson School at Cornell. His course “Finance” was known among all the undergraduate business school students (and beyond) as the toughest, most essential, and most helpful business school course. On top of that, Prof. Curtis went far beyond what any other professor did to engage, help, and get to know students. Although, in a class with hundreds of students, there are bound to be some who experienced Curtis’s tough love, these same students shared their appreciation in years later for what they learned from those moments and/or the rigorous coursework.
I am still honored, over a decade later, Professor Curtis selected me as one of his Teaching Assistants. It was a blessing and a privilege to work as his TA for three semesters. His finance knowledge was thorough and expansive, so I found myself learning more from him, year after year.
After learning Prof. Curtis has moved on from this life, I shared the sad news with dozens of Dyson School and other Cornell former classmates, many of whom I haven’t connected with since our undergraduate years. It was no surprise when I received quick responses back from nearly everyone, all expressing how great he was, they enjoyed and are thankful for his course (even if they didn’t do as well), he was a great guy, and will be missed.
Katie and I will surely miss running into him in collegetown on reunion weekends. And if we’re lucky enough to see you when our time comes, Professor Curtis, we still owe you that special finders fee!
Andrew P. Schrichte
