Tim Curry, longtime Tarrant County District Attorney, dies

Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Tim Curry, 70, died early Friday morning, April 24.

Curry, who was born in Tulia, Texas, in 1938, worked for the Tarrant County DAÂ’s office for 36 years. CurryÂ’s department held a 90 percent felony conviction rate.

Curry “was unique in that he’d been in the position of District Attorney for Tarrant County for 36 years, and that is a long time to hold one elected position,” said Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief. “But, I think that’s a testament to his effectiveness, to his quiet, unassuming management style… I think his record of conviction rates from the time he was in office speaks for itself. He and his wife, Jan, were close to my wife, Rosie, and me, and he will certainly be missed.”

Crime rates in Tarrant County and Fort Worth were rising rapidly when Curry came into his DA position, and his work became vital to bringing those rates down, said U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger, who worked with Curry during her time as Mayor of Fort Worth.

“He brought an enormous change to the DA’s office,” Granger said. “I knew him personally, and I knew him when I was mayor. And, at the time I became Mayor, crime had really just escalated enormously in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. Tim was very, very helpful to me as a mayor, and really understanding in what needed to be done in updating the effectiveness of the police and the DA’s office.”

Through his work, Curry made Tarrant County a safer place to live, said Gov. Rick Perry.

“Texas is a law and order state and Tim Curry represented that notion as much as anyone I know,” Gov. Perry said in a statement. “He dedicated his adult life to the pursuit of justice and made Tarrant County a safer place to live, work and raise a family. Anita and I are praying for his wife, Jan, and their children as they go through this tough time. Texas lost one of the good ones today.”

Throughout his career in Tarrant County, Curry also spent time helping train attorneys who have since gone on to be successful both in Fort Worth and in cities across the U.S., Moncrief said.

“His management style was to push his staff out front, to charge them with a responsibility of taking care of the business of District Attorney’s office, and his preference was to remain in the background and out of the spotlight,” Moncrief said. “The result was that Tim was responsible for hiring and training a lot of young lawyers that now have their own practice, and they will tell you very quickly that he provided the training ground. I think you could probably look in every major law firm in this city and beyond and find attorneys that benefited under his tutelage, and that’s something he’s done for a long time.”

In 2003, Curry told the Fort Worth Business Press that his leadership style was to “hire people smarter than you,” and then to step away and let them work. 

In a welcoming statement Curry wrote on the DAÂ’s Web site, he emphasized the work he and others have done to improve Tarrant CountyÂ’s criminal justice system.

“We have established a Victims Assistance Unit to aid those who have been victimized,” Curry wrote. “We have been able to create specialized units consisting of prosecutors and investigators concentrating in the areas of crimes against children, family violence, gang prosecution, economic crimes, and most recently, computer crimes.”

Curry, whose first job was working as a produce clerk and whose first car was a Ford Model A, told the Business Press in 2003 that his dream career was to be a District Attorney.

Curry also enjoyed playing golf, and considered the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee to be his favorite book.

Curry attended Texas Christian University and Baylor UniversityÂ’s School of Law.

In April of 2008, Curry was named a Champion of Justice by the Texas District and County Attorneys organization.

Curry had designated Alan Levy, his criminal division chief, as his first assistant to serve in his place until Gov. Rick Perry appoints a district attorney to serve until the next general election, Joe Shannon, the assistant criminal district attorney in Tarrant County, said in a post on the Texas District and County Attorneys Association Web site.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29, at First United Methodist Church in downtown.

lwimmer@bizpress.net