[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 23879-23880] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]IN MEMORY OF JOHN CURRY ______ HON. JOE WILSON of south carolina in the house of representatives Thursday, October 2, 2008 Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I am grateful to submit the following thoughtful memorial that ran in the Island Packet in Hilton Head Island, SC, remembering the life and service of John Curry. John was a dear friend and a lifelong leader in his community. [From the Island Packet, Sept. 28, 2008] A Look at the Life of Island Tourism Champion John Curry (By Janet Smith and David Lauderdale) For 35 years, John Curry had a singular impact on the development of Hilton Head Island's tourism industry and the island's place in the world. That impact came in a determined pursuit to keep Hilton Head viable, even through the toughest of economic times, and to maintain what drew millions of visitors and the island's nearly 40,000 permanent residents here in the first place. Curry, 78, died Friday night at Hilton Head Hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm during lunch with his wife, Valerie, and friends at the Hilton Head Yacht Club. Only the late Charles Fraser, who carved a new community out of the forests of Sea Pines and set the stage for future planned communities, did more to shape the island's modern development. But Curry, who came to Hilton Head to work for Fraser in 1973 as executive vice president of the old Sea Pines Co., dealt with the nuts and bolts of legislation, incorporation and operations that ultimately shaped Hilton Head as a resort destination and residential community. In the process, he shaped tourism statewide. Along the way, he played a critical role in creating the Town of Hilton Head Island and establishing the island as a year-round resort community. He also helped negotiate and get through the legislature the state accommodations tax, which has provided millions of dollars in marketing money for the [[Page 23880]] local tourism industry, as well as funding for arts and cultural groups here. CENTER OF THE STORM Curry's work was not without controversy. He often was caught up in the clash of competing tourism and residential interests and served as a lightning rod for those who thought the island was changing for the worse. As the tourism industry's most visible spokesman, he took the heat for the industry, accused of putting self-interest over community interests. He played that same lightning rod role at the Hilton Head Island Airport, serving on the Beaufort County Aviation Advisory Board for many years. Native islander Perry White said he and Curry agreed on little, if anything, in 35 years of tangling on issues from incorporation of the island to expansion of the airport. But White said their disagreements were never personal. They even swapped stories about lessons learned from their grandfathers. ``I had tremendous respect for John, and I think he had respect for me,'' White said. ``John's contributions were tremendous. I'll miss John. He was one of the mediating forces on the Airport Advisory Board, and with all the firebrands coming on now, I'm beginning to appreciate that more.'' The last time the two saw each other was at a recent Beaufort County Council committee meeting. Curry handed White a copy of a proposed charter change to the airport advisory board. BACK FROM THE BRINK One of Curry's toughest business challenges came in November 1986, when he was tapped to run Hilton Head's largest employer as it plunged into bankruptcy. Curry was named trustee for Hilton Head Holdings Corp., a company that had been cobbled together from the assets of two longtime island companies--the Sea Pines Co. and the Hilton Head Co.--less than two years before. The company owned property and business operations in Sea Pines, Shipyard, Wexford, Port Royal and Indigo Run. Its collapse directly affected a third of the island, but the entire community reeled from the blow. The company was in debt to the tune of $100 million, 90 percent of that in real estate mortgages. But more than 2,000 creditors, many of them local businesses, were owed $10 million. The bankruptcy threatened not only individual livelihoods, but the reputation of Hilton Head as a first-class resort and the future of the island's premier sporting event, the Heritage Classic professional golf tournament. National media swarmed to Hilton Head to cover the story of a premier resort falling into disrepute. The island company had been wrested from developer Bobby Ginn earlier in 1986 and put in the hands of a New York businessman, Philip Schwab. But Schwab's financial empire collapsed, along with the savings and loan industry, pulling down the Hilton Head properties. Schwab was supposed to prop up the failing island company. Instead, he started pulling money out of Hilton Head. Schwab said that his net worth at the time he took control of the company was $50 million to $60 million; he estimated in 1987 that he owed $500 million. When asked in October 1987 what he had told people he would do to save the company, Schwab replied, ``Nobody ever asked me.'' U.S. District Judge Sol Blatt Jr., who appointed Curry as trustee, and former S.C. Gov. John West succeeded in getting the South Carolina properties separated from the rest of Schwab's holdings. Blatt took the rare step of holding on to the bankruptcy case rather than turn it over to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge. Blatt for many years owned a house in Palmetto Dunes and was a longtime friend of West. Blatt, West and Curry had no bankruptcy experience. (At one of the first hearings in the case, Blatt described himself and West as ``the blind leading the blind.'') Curry's resort operations experience brought him to the table. The challenge was to balance what they thought was right for Hilton Head with the pressures to sell the company's assets for the most money possible to pay off creditors. Those competing interests made for fiery court hearings, and it eventually resulted in Blatt's removal from the case by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court said Blatt's Hilton Head ties had created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest. Blatt's activism was extremely unusual, but the fear of lasting repercussions for Hilton Head was palpable. In January 1987, Blatt said, ``I'm not going to supervise the demise of Hilton Head Island when I can stop it.'' Throughout 1987, Curry and his team struggled to keep resort and real estate operations going while figuring out how to keep the gated communities caught in the bankruptcy as intact as possible. KEEPING THE HERITAGE Saving the Heritage also was a primary goal. The PGA Tour was unhappy with the condition of Harbour Town Golf Links, where the Heritage was played. The course had been neglected as the Sea Pines Co.'s fortunes sank. Making matters worse was that the purse check for another Tour event held at Harbour Town in the fall of 1986 had bounced. Curry flew to Jacksonville, Fla., to meet with the PGA Tour commissioner. When told the only way to keep the Heritage was to sell Harbour Town Golf Links to the Tour, Curry got up and walked out. It worked. The tournament stayed, and Curry then leaned on Angus Cotton, who had moved to the island in 1981 as general manager of the Marriott resort hotel in Shipyard, to produce a $1 million letter of credit from local businesses to guarantee the purse for the 1987 tournament. To do it, they formed the nonprofit Heritage Classic Foundation to stage the tournament. To date, that group's charitable giving from tournament proceeds has topped $16 million. In the end, the bankrupt company's Sea Pines assets went to residents of that community who put together their own company, Sea Pines Associates. Most of the other properties went back to mortgage holder Marathon Oil Co. Indigo Run ended up in the hands of the Federal Resolution Trust Corp. and was sold to the Melrose Co. in 1991. After getting baptized in the arcane world of bankruptcy law, Curry continued to work as a trustee in many other cases. `HEADS IN BEDS' But Curry's most enduring legacy will be his work in tourism. ``Before John, we had tourism but it was almost always linked to selling real estate,'' Cotton said. ``He was interested in putting heads in beds and pushing tourism in the off-peak months.'' Curry and Cotton took countless trips to cold cities, pitching the island and offering tourism leaders there free stays back on Hilton Head. Friends say that no matter where Curry went around the world, he always seemed to know people. Cotton and others worked with Curry to shape the state Accommodations Tax Act in 1984. With assurances that part of the 2 percent tax on overnight lodging would go to local tourism marketing and to local organizations to promote tourism, Curry helped sell it to skeptical industry leaders statewide. Curry, who led the island's Visitor and Convention Bureau for 17 years, also pushed legislation to relax state liquor laws and allow Sunday sales. ``He was very pragmatic,'' Cotton said, ``very pragmatic. In the arts and education and a lot of other ways people didn't see, he was behind the scenes trying to smooth the way and work things out.'' FLYING HIGH To understand Curry's involvement with the airport, one first must understand his passion for flying, said David Ames, chairman of county Aviation Advisory Board and a close friend of Curry's. They shared office space for 20 years. ``I think he was happiest in the air,'' Ames said. ``He just loved the adventure and the freedom flying gave him.'' As a tourism leader, Curry also understood how important the airport is to the economy and the island experience, Ames said. ``John believed the airport provided an essential support for the standard of life on the island,'' he said. ``The convenience of the island airport is tremendously important, and John knew that. And coming from the service business, he knew it was important how a passenger feels about Hilton Head when getting off that airplane. He was always looking for ways to make the airport better, and he spent whatever time it took.'' Bill Miles, president and CEO of the Hilton Head Island- Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, said, ``The Hilton Head Island we know today is in part due to the tireless efforts of John, with his wonderful obsession to get it right and make this the unique destination it has become. He created a lasting legacy for us all, with courage, true grit, determination and with a real grace and style that was all his own.'' In memory of John Curry. A memorial service for John Curry, 78, is at 2 p.m. Monday at First Presbyterian Church, 540 William Hilton Parkway. Surviving are his wife of 36 years, Valerie; three sons, David (Rozana) Curry of Burbank, Calif., Edward (Kelly) Curry of Toluca Lake, Calif., and Donn Curry of Portland, Ore.; two grandchildren, Matthew and Adam Curry; a brother, David Curry of Berkeley, Calif.; and a former daughter-in-law, Lynn Curry. He was preceded in death by his twin sister, Jeanette; and his first wife, Martha Weathersbee Curry. ____________________