Evening star., 1933-06-07
CYRUS H. K. CURTIS
D|ESAT AGE OF g
Noted Publisher Succumbs to
Heart AiIment at PhiIa.
deIphia Home.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
PHILADELPHIA, June Cyrus H.
K Curtis, whose rise from newsboy to
publisher was one of the epics of
American business, died today at his
home in suburban Wyncote of linger-
ing heart ailment. He would have
been SO on June 18.
One of the worlds great magazine
and newspaper publishers, Mr. Curtis
passed away at 2:10 am. eastern day.
light time).
He had been i'll since May, last year,
when he was stricken with a heart
attack while on his yacht Lyndonia,
near New York, and was hurried to
this city aboard the vessel.
Five days later his wife died sud-
denly. She had taken q room in the
hospital to be near him and passed
away in her sleep from heart ailment
from which she had suffered for a
number of years. She was his second
wife and second cousin.
Head Of Publishing House.
Mr. Curtis was chairman Of the
board of the Curtis Publishing Co.,
which publishes the Saturday Evening
Post Ladies Home Journal and the
Country Gentleman.
Also, Mr.. Curtis was president Of
Curtis Martin Newspapers, Inc, which
publishes the Philadelphia Public
Ledger and Evening Ledger and the
New York Evening Post and owns the
Philadelphia Inquirer. He was men,
Der of the Associated Press.
The publisher left one daughter.
Mrs. Mary Louis Curtis Box, widow Of
Edward w. Box, for many years editor
of Ladies' Home Journal. She was his
only child.
John c. Martin, vice president OF
Curtis Martin Newspapers, Inc, is the
husband of the former Miss Alice
Wedgwood Pillsbury, a daughter of the
second Mrs. Curtis by her first mar
riage.
At his bedside when he died were his
daughter and her two sons, William
Curtis Box and Cary w. Box; his
Mrs. John c. Martin
and Mrs. Preston Wells of Detroit;
John C. Martin and Drs Martin E.
Rehfuss of Philadelphia and Freeman
Brown of Rockland, Me.
Funeral Planned Friday.
Funeral services are to be held Fr-
day at the home: The Portland Mems
Singing Club of Portland, Me-, is to be
in attendance.
After his attack last year, Mr.. Cur
tis was removed to his home and later
taken to his Summer home in Maine,
where Re remained until Fall. Last
Winter he spent two months aboaru
his yacht in Southern waters, returning
to Wyncote early in April.
Although in close touch with his vast
publishing interests, Mr.. Curtis did not
visit his Office much in the last year.
Last October he resigned as president
of the Curtis Publishing Co. to become
head of the Board of Directors. He was
succeeded as president by George
Horace Lorimer, editor of the Saturday
Evening Post.
Mr.. Curtis left his birthplace, Port
land. Me-, when youth of 10, to take
Boston store. At the end of year he
turned to advertising soliciting for the
Travellers Guide, the Boston Times and
the Independent
Then he established the Peoples
Ledger, a weekly magazine, which he
moved to Philadelphia in 1876, when
he was 26. In 1873 he sold the maga-
zine and again turned to advertising.
A year later ne and his brother-in-law,
Hamilton Mayo, started the Tribune
and Farmer, an agricultural magazine.
Wife Edited Journal.
1t was from this publication that the
Ladies Home Journal sprang Mr.. Cur
It's first wife, who was Miss Louisa
Knapp of Boston, read every issue
closely and one day criticized a column
devoted to women's interests Her hus-
band asked her to try editing the fea-
ture
In a short time the column had
grown to a page. Then it became an
eight-page supplement, known as the
Ladies Home Journal. Finally its sue
cess led Mr.. Curtis to devote his entire
attention to it. He disposed of the
farm paper to a junior partner. With
Mrs. Curtis in the editors chair, he dis
covered a new circulation field.
Later he acquired the Saturday Eve
ming Post, the Country Gentleman and
the newspaper properties.
In personal life Mr.. Curtis had two
outstanding characteristics, simplicity
OF manner and love of the beautiful.
Among the arts his greatest interest
was in music. AS boy he was en-
thralled by the playing of Hermann
Kotzschmar an eminent organist, who
was close friend of his father.
The father commemorated the friend
ship in his sons two middle names,