MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE (updated Tuesday August 16, 4:12 p.m.) – Dave Curtin, the former Columbia High School athletic director who helped revived the Cougars football program as head coach, died Wednesday afternoon, August 10, after a courageous battle with cancer. He recently turned 58.
Curtin came to CHS in 2003 as the athletic director, succeeding longtime athletic director Bob Curcio, who retired.
While he remained the athletic director, Curtin took over as the head coach of the CHS varsity football team in 2007.
The Cougars went winless in his first year. In his second season in 2008, the Cougars defeated Dickinson, 48-0, in the season finale to snap a 45-game losing streak dating back to the 2004 campaign.
The next two seasons simply were glorious for the Cougars as they won back-to-back Super Essex Conference-Liberty Division titles and qualified for the state North Jersey Section 2, Group 4 playoffs in both seasons. The previous time the Cougars made the playoffs was in 1982.
The Cougars finished 8-2 in 2009, losing to Westfield in the first round of the playoffs.
The following season, the Cougars went undefeated in the regular season and finished 9-1, with the lone loss coming against Bridgewater in the first round of the playoffs.
Curtin missed the 2011 season due to health reasons. He returned to the sidelines in 2012, but stepped down as athletic director. Larry Bushichio stepped down as the CHS baseball head coach to take over as athletic director and has been in that role since.
Following the 2013 season, Curtin stepped down as football coach, but remained as a physical education teacher at CHS.
Curtin is a 1976 Brearley graduate in Kenilworth.
Prior to coming to CHS, Curtin was the head football coach at Wardlaw-Hartridge, Brearley, Millburn and Marlboro for a combined nine seasons. He was an assistant football coach at Brearley for nine seasons and Johnson in Clark for one season. Curtin also coached track and field at Roselle Catholic, Brearley, and Governor Livingston in Berkeley Heights for a combined 22 seasons.
Curtin was the athletic director at Roselle Catholic from 1993-95.
Curtin is survived by his wife, Nadine; daughter, Noelle; sons, Joshua and Matthew; two granchildren, Jasper and Isla; and mother, Catherine. He was predeceased by his father David J. and brother, Michael.
Jerry Auriemma, the former CHS Athletic Hall of Fame President who was close friends with Curtin, recalled Curtin’s unwavering devotion to athletics in the South Orange and Maplewood community.
“He is the only athletic director that I saw who helped the kids before they got to Columbia High School,” Auriemma said. “I ran the Maplewood-South Orange recreation wrestling club. He gave us all of Columbia High School one Sunday for the Essex County Tournament, which was 27 teams, and he gave me the whole school. He would come to the football games for the kids. He would come to baseball games. He would let the kids play on the field. In fact, my son’s eighth-grade team was the first team to play on the new field (at Underhill Field) before the varsity football games. He was that type of guy. He cared about the kids, man. He really did. When they got to Columbia, they knew who he was. That was the secret to his magic. By the time he came to Columbia, they knew him, so that they can stop by his office. It made a difference because in 10 years he was the athletic director, I think they had more championships of all time than ever before in every sport. That was his magic. He was one of a kind.”
Busichio said he had the pleasure of working with Curtin in two capacities, as a baseball coach when Curtin was the athletic director and when Busichio took over Curtin’s role as A.D.
“As a coach, you couldn’t have asked to be more supportive,” said Busichio about Curtin’s support. “He was always supportive of our program; he always rooted us on. He would do everything he could for me.”
When Curtin stepped down as A.D., Busichio said Curtin always took the time to stop by and offer advice to him.
But more than anything, Busichio cherished the friendship he forged with Curtin.
“I considered him a good friend,” said Busichio, a 1995 CHS graduate. “Lots of time, we would sit in the office and just talk about anything that wasn’t related to sports or education.”
Busichio also saw Curtin’s influence on the students.
“The kids really liked him,” Busichio said. “Even when he left to go back into teaching, the kids in his classes always liked him. He liked being around kids, and that’s why he stepped away from being A.D. Not to say that you can’t be around kids when you’re A.D., but when you are coaching, that’s one of the things I miss about coaching, the daily grind with the kids, and that’s what he really loved.”
Turning around the football program also will always be a part of Curtin’s legacy.
“When he took over the football program, it was in the dredges,” Busichio said. “They had two terrific seasons in ‘09 and ‘10, so he brought respectability and pride back to Columbia football.”
In an article about his hiring as athletic director, published in the News-Record, dated Sept. 18, 2003, Curtin expressed his commitment to helping students achieve a positive experience.
“Everything I do, I want to make sure it’s in the best interests of the kids,” Curtin said in the article. “I want the kids to walk out of here to say that they had a positive experience in athletics as well as academically.”
Viewing will be held Sunday, August 14, at Higgins and Bonner Echo Lake Funeral Home, located at 582 Springfield Ave. in Westfield from 3-7 p.m. A Celebration of his Life will be held Monday, August 15, at Kenilworth Gospel Chapel, located at 557 Newark Ave. in Kenilworth, at 10 a.m.
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