Laurence Curtis
Laurence Curtis was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. He was born in Boston. He graduated from Groton School in 1912 and from Harvard University in 1916. He served in the Foreign Diplomatic Service. Upon graduation from college, he was commissioned as an officer in the Navy and was injured during an aviation training crash on a flying boat in Newport News, Virginia, resulting in the loss of a leg. He served out the rest of his time in the military in Pensacola, Florida. He was awarded the Citation Star.
He returned to Harvard Law School and graduated in 1921. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar the same year and commenced practice in Boston. He was secretary to United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.. He served as assistant United States attorney in Boston, was a member of Boston City Council, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, a member of Massachusetts State Senate, Massachusetts State Treasurer, a delegate to Republican National Convention in 1960, and a past State Commander and National Senior Vice Commander of the Disabled American Veterans. He was the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1950.
He was elected as a Republican to the Eighty-third and to the four succeeding Congresses. Curtis voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, but voted present on the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1962 to the Eighty-eighth Congress, but was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination to the United States Senate. He resumed the practice of law, was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1968 to the Ninety-first Congress, in 1970 to the Ninety-second Congress, and for nomination in 1972 to the Ninety-third Congress. He was a resident of Newton, Massachusetts until his death in Boston on July 11, 1989. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.
