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behind the town's incorporation, died late Friday night at Hilton Head Hospital.
Curry, 78, was president of The Curry Co., a resort operations and international consulting firm.
His career began at Yosemite National Park, where his family's company operated all concessions and hotel operations. Curry later moved to the Walt Disney Co., where he worked as administrator of hotel planning and director of resort operations for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
He came to Hilton Head Island to serve as executive vice president of Sea Pines Co. He later formed Sand Dollar
Management, a property management company.
Curry soon got involved in community activism and joined the Community Association, the predecessor to the town government. He became co-chairman of the group as the push for incorporation reached a fever pitch in the early 1980s. Curry was one of the main proponents for making Hilton Head its own town so it could enact its own zoning regulations and laws. The effort was successful and Curry ran for the island's first mayor, but lost to Ben Racusin.
Curry served as chairman of the state Hotel and Motel Association, and for 17 years led the Hilton Head Chamber of Commerce's Visitor and Convention Bureau. He also was chairman of the Hilton Head Island Olympic Task Force.
His work also included helping to draft the state's accommodations tax, an overnight tax on lodging, ensuring that some of the money collected returned to the industry for marketing, and served on the statewide oversight committee as well as the town's Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee.
He served as the trustee for the Hilton Head Holdings bankruptcy, from 1986 to 1987. The $100 million bankruptcy involved five of the island's planned communities, including Sea Pines. The company owed $10 million to more than 2,000 unsecured creditors, many of them local businesses. Curry oversaw resort operations, as well as working to keep the Heritage Classic professional golf tournament on Hilton Head. He helped to establish the Heritage Classic Foundation, a nonprofit group that took over staging the tournament, in 1987 and served on its board until his death.
He was a member of the Beaufort County Aviation Board; both the South Carolina and Hilton Head accommodations tax committees; the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus Advisory Board; and S.C. 2000, a group created to implement the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of South Carolina.
In 1982, he was named the Alice Glenn Doughtie Citizen of the Year by the Hilton Head Chamber of Commerce.
In 1987, he was awarded the Order of the Palmetto by Gov. Richard Riley for administering the National Governors' Association Conference, held on the island. In 1993, he received the Fred Brinkman Award at the S.C. Governor's Conference on Tourism and Travel.
He was a member of First Presbyterian Church on Hilton Head Island.
